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THE 



GEORGICKS OF VIRGIL. 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



GEORGICORUM 



LIBRI QUATUOR. 



GEORGICKS OF VIRGIL, 



AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION 



- NOTES 



BY JOHN MARTYN, F. R. S 



ItH'ESSOR OF 



IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. 



OXFORD, , 

PRINTED BY TV. BAXTER, 

FOR C. AND J. RIVINGTON; LONGMAN, REES, AND CO.; J. BOOKEIl 

GEO. B. MIIITTAKER; SIMPKIN and MARSHALL; AND J. COLLING- 

AVOOD, LONDON ; AND J. PARKER, OXFORD. 

1827. _: 



G E O R G It^ u jx u M 

LIBRI QUATUOR. 



THE 

/ 
GEORGICKS OF VIRGIL, 



WITH 



AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION 



NOTES. 



BY JOHNjMARTYN, F.R.S. 

PROFESSOR OF BOTANY' IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. 



THE FIFTH EDITION. 



OXFORD, 

PRINTED BY W. BAXTER, 

FOR C. AND J. RIVINGTON; LONGMAN, REES, AND CO.; J. BOOKER; 

GEO. B. WHITTAKER; SIMPKIN and MARSHALL; AND J. COLLING- 

WOOD, LONDON; AND J. PARKER, OXFORD. 

1827. 



1 






27043 



^ 



TO 

RICHARD MEAD, M. D. 

PHYSICIAN TO HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE II. 



SIR, 

I DESIRE leave to present to you the follow- 
Dg Work, which was begun with your approbation 
ind encouragement. You will find in almost 
ivery page what use has been made of those 
valuable Manuscripts of Virgil, which make a 
part of your noble library ; and which you was 
pleased to lend me with that readiness, which you 
always shew in the encouragement of learning. 

Your exact acquaintance with all the fine 
authors of antiquity, makes you a proper patron 
of an edition of any of their compositions. But 
Virgil seems in a particular manner to claimyour 
patronage. He, if we may credit the writers 
of his life, had made no small proficiency in 
that divine art, in the profession of which you 
have for so many years held the first place, and 
acquired a reputation equal to the great know- 



ii DEDICATION. 

ledge and humanity, with which you have exer- 
cised it. 

As the Georgicks were, in the opinion of their 
great author himself, the most valuable part of his 
Works, you will not be displeased with the pains 
that I have taken to illustrate the most difficult 
passages therein. And if I shall be so happy as 
to have your approbation of these fruits of my 
labours, I shall have no reason to fear the censure 
of others. But if they had not been composed 
with as much exactness and care as I am master 
of, I should not have ventured to desire your 
acceptance of them, from. 

Sir, 
Your most obliged 

humble Servant, 



JOHN MARTYN. 



Chelsea, 
March 16, 1740-1. 



PREFACE. 



Husbandry is not only the most ancient, but also 
the most useful of all arts. This alone is absolutely 
necessary for the support of human life; and without it 
other pursuits would be in vain. The exercise therefore 
of this art was justly accounted most honourable by the 
ancients. Thus in the earliest ages of the world we find 
the greatest heroes wielding the share as well as the 
sword, and the fairest hands no more disdaining to hold 
a crook than a sceptre. The ancient Romans owed 
their glory and power to Husbandry : and that famous 
Republic never flourished so much, as when their great- 
est men ploughed with their own hands. Lucius Quin- 
tius Cincinnatus was found naked at the plough-tail, 
when he was summoned to take upon him the Dictator- 
ship. And when he had settled the Commonwealth, 
the glorious old man returned to the tillage of his small 
farm, laden with the praises of the Roman people. C. 
Fabricius and Curius Dentatus, those glorious patterns 
of temperance, who drove Pyrrhus out of Italy, and 
vanquished the Samnites and Sabines, were as diligent 
in cultivating their fields, as^ they were valiant and 
successful in war. But when the virtuous industry of 
this great people gave way to luxury and effeminacy, 
the loss of their glory attended on their neglect of 
Husbandry, and by degrees they fell a prey to bar- 
barous nations. 

a2 



iv PREFACE. 

This art has not only exercised the bodies of the 
greatest heroes, but the pens also of the most 
celebrated writers of antiquity, Hesiod, who lived in 
the generation immediately succeeding the Trojan war, 
wrote a Greek poem on Husbandry. And though 
Homer did not write expressly on this subject, yet he 
has represented Laertes, the father of his favourite hero, 
as a wise prince, retiring from public business, and de- 
voting his latter years to the tillage of his land. Demo- 
critus, Xenophon, Aristotle, Theophrastus, and several 
other Grecian philosophers, have treated of Agriculture 
in prose. Among the Romans, Cato the famous censor 
has written a treatise of rural affairs, in which he was 
imitated by the learned Varro. Cato writes like an 
ancient country gentleman, of much experience ; he 
abounds in short pithy sentences, intersperses his book 
with moral precepts, and was esteemed as a sort of rural 
oracle. Varro writes more like a scholar than a man of 
much practice : he is fond of researches into antiquity, 
enquires into the etymology of the names of persons and 
things ; and we are obliged to him for a catalogue of 
those who had written on this subject before him. 

But Virgil shines in a sphere far superior to the rest. 
His natural abilities, his education, his experience in 
Husbandry, conspired to render him the finest writer on 
this subject. No man was ever endowed with a more 
noble genius, which he took care to improve by the 
study of Greek literature, mathematics, astronomy, me- 
dicine, and philosophy. He cultivated his own lands 
near Mantua, till he was about thirty years of age, when 
he appeared at Rome, and was soon received into the 
favour of Augustus Caesar. Virgil wanted nothing but 
the air of a court, to add a polish to his uncommon 



PREFACE. V 

share of parts and learning. And here he had the hap- 
piness to live under the protection of the most powerful 
prince in the world, and to converse familiarly with the 
greatest men that any age or nation ever produced. 
The Pastorals of Theocritus were much admired, and 
not undeservedly ; but the Romans had never seen any 
thing of that kind in their own language. Virgil at- 
tempted it, and with such success, that he has at least 
made the victory doubtful. The Latin Eclogues dis- 
covered such a delicacy in their compsoition, that the 
author was immediately judged capable of arriving at 
the nobler sorts of poetry. The long duration of the civil 
wars had almost depopulated the country, and laid it 
waste ; there had been such a scarcity in Rome, that 
Augustus had almost lost his life by an insurrection of 
the populace. A great part of the lands in Italy had been 
divided among the soldiers, who had been too long en- 
gaged in the wars, to have a just knowledge of Agricul- 
ture. Hence it became necessary that the ancient spirit 
of husbandry should be revived among the Romans, 
And Maecenas, who wisely pursued every thing that 
might be of service to his master, engaged the favourite 
poet in this undertaking. 

Virgil, who had already succeeded so well in the 
contention with one Greek poet, now boldly entered 
the lists with another. And if it may be questioned 
whether he exceeded Theocritus, there can be no doubt 
of his having gone far beyond Hesiod. He was now in 
the thirty-fifth year of his age, his imagination in full 
vigour, and his judgment mature. He employed seven 
years in the composition of this noble poem, which he 
called Georgicks; and when it was finished, it did not 
fall short of the expectations of his patron. 



vi PREFACE. 

Those who have been accustomed to see the noble 
art of Husbandry committed to the management of the 
meanest people, may think the majestic style which Vir- 
gil has used not well adapted to the subject. But the 
poet wrote for the delight and instruction of a people, 
whose dictators and consuls had been husbandmen. 
His expressions accordingly are every where so solemn, 
and every precept is delivered with such dignity, that 
we seem to be instructed by one of those ancient 
farmers, who had just enjoyed the honours of a triumph. 
Never was any poem finished with such exactness : 
there being hardly a sentence that we could wish omit- 
ted, or a word that could be changed, without injuring 
the propriety or delicacy of the expression. He never 
sinks into any thing low and mean ; but by a just distri- 
bution of Grecisms, antique phrases, figurative expres- 
sions, and noble allusions, keeps up a true poetical spirit 
through the whole composition. But we cannot be sur- 
prised at this extraordinary exactness, if we consider, 
that every line of this charming poem cost more than an 
entire day to the most judicious of all poets, in the most 
vigorous part of his life. Besides, it appears that he 
was continually revising it to the very day of his death. 

It would be an endless labour to point out all the 
several beauties in this poem : but it would be an 
unpardonable omission in an editor, to pass them 
wholly over in silence. The reader will easily observe 
the variety which Virgil uses in delivering his precepts. 
A writer less animated with a spirit of poetry, would 
have contented himself with dryly telling us, that it is 
proper to break the clods with harrows, and by drawing 
hurdles over them ; and to plough the furrows across ; 
that moist summers and fair winters are to be desired ; 



PREFACE. vii 

and that it is good to float the field after it is sown. 
These precepts are just ; but it is the part of a poet to 
make them beautiful also, by a variety of expression. 
Virgil therefore begins these precepts by saying, the 
husbandman, who breaks the clods with harrows 
and hurdles, greatly helps the field ; and then he 
introduces Ceres looking down from heaven with a 
favourable aspect upon him, and on those also, who 
plough the field across, which he beautifully calls exer- 
cising the earth, and commanding the fields*. He 
expresses the advantage of moist summers and dry 
winters, by advising the farmers to pray for such 
seasons ; and then immediately leaves the didactic 
style, and represents the fields as rejoicing in winter 
dust, and introduces the mention of a country famous 
for corn, owing its fertility to nothing so much as to 
this weather, and, by a bold metaphor, makes the fields 
astonished at the plenty of their harvest'*. The poet 
now changes his style to the form of a question, and 
asks why he needs to mention him that floats the 
ground : he then describes the field gasping with thirst, 
and the grass withering, and places before our eyes the 
labourer inviting the rill to descend from a neighbouring 
rock ; we hear the stream bubble over the stones, and 

^ Multum adeo, rastris glebas qui frangit inertes, 

Vimineasque trahit crates, juvat arva : neque ilium 

Flava Ceres alto nequicquam speetat Olympo : 

Et qui, proscisso quae suscitat aequore terga, 

Rursus in obliquum verso perrumpit aratro, 

Exercetque frequens tellurem, atque imperat arvis. 
^ Humida solstitia, atque hyemes orate serenas, 

Agricolae : hyberno laetissima pulvere farra, 

Laetus ager : nuUo tantum se Mysia cultu 

Jactat, et ipsa suas mirantur Gargara messes. 



viii PREFACE. 

are delighted with the refreshment that is given to the 
fields*'. To mention every instance of this variety of 
expression, would be almost the same thing with 
reciting the whole poem. 

Virgil has exceeded all other poets in the justness 
and beauty of his descriptions. The summer storm in 
the first book is, I believe, not to be equalled. We see 
the adverse winds engaging, the heavy corn torn up by 
the roots, and whirled aloft, the clouds thickening, the 
rain pouring, the rivers overflowing, and the sea 
swelling, and to conclude the horror of the description, 
Jupiter is introduced darting thunder with his fiery 
right hand, and overturning the mountains; earth 
trembles, the beasts are fled, and men are struck with 
horror; the south wind redoubles, the shower increases, 
and the woods and shores rebellow. The description 
of the spring, in the second book, is no less pleasing, 
than that of the storm is terrible. We there are enter- 
tained with the melody of birds, the loves of the cattle, 
the earth opening her bosom to the warm zephyrs, 
and the trees and herbs unfolding their tender buds. 
I need not mention the fine descriptions of the cescultis, 
the citron, the amellus, or the several sorts of serpents, 
which are all excellent. The descriptions of the horse, 
the chariot - race, the fighting of the bulls, the violent 
effects of lust, and the Scythian winter, can never be too 
much admired . 

•= Quid dicam, jacto qui semine cominus arva 
lusequitur, cumulosque ruit male pinguis arenae? 
Deinde satis fluvium inducit^ rivosque sequentes? 
Et cum exustus ager morientibus aestuat herbis, 
Ecce supercilio clivosi tramitis undam 
Elicit : ilia cadeiis raucum per laevia murmur 
Saxa ciet, scatebrisque arentia temperat arva. 



PREFACE. ix 

The use of well adapted similes is in a manner essen- 
tial to a poem. None can be more just, than the com- 
parison of a well ordered vineyard to the Roman army 
drawn out in rank and file ; nor could any have been 
more happily imagined, than that of a bull rushing on 
his adversary, to a great wave rolling to the shore, and 
dashing over the rocks. But above all, that celebrated 
simile of the nightingale, in the fourth book, has been 
no less justly than universally applauded. 

But nothing is more generally admired in poetry, 
than that curious art of making the numbers of the 
verses expressive of the sense that is contained in it. 
When the giants strive to heap one huge mountain 
upon another, the very line pants and heaves'*; ^^^ 
when the earth is to be broken up with heavy drags, 
the verse labours as much as the husbandman*. We 
hear the prancing steps of the war horsed the swelling 
of the sea, the crashing of the mountains, the resounding 
of the shores, and the murmuring of the woods ^, in the 
poet's numbers. The swift rushing of the north 
wind^, and the haste required to catch up a stone to 
destroy a serpents are described in words as quick as 
the subject. 

^ Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam. 

^---- Omne quotannis 

Terque quaterque solum scindendum^ glebaque versis 
JEternum frangenda bidentibus. 

^ Insultare solo, et gressus glomerare superbos. 

s---------- Freta ponti 

Incipiunt agitata tumescere, et aridus altis 
Montibus audiri fragor : aut resonantia longe 
Littora misceri, et nemorum increbrescere murmur. 

^ lUe volat, simul arva fuga, simul aequora verrens. 

* - - - Cape saxa manu, cape robora pastor. 
b 



X PREFACE. 

Digressions are not only permitted, but are thought 
ornamental in a poem ; provided they do not seem to 
be stuck on unartfully, or to ramble too far from the 
subject. Virgirs are entertaining and pertinent ; and 
he never suffers them to lose sight ^of the business in 
hand. The most liable to objection seems to be the 
conclusion of the first Georgick, where he entertains 
the reader with a long account of the prodigies that at- 
tended Caesar^s death, and of the miseries occasioned 
by the civil wars among the Romans. But here it may 
be observed what care the poet takes not to forget his 
subject. He introduces a husbandman in future ages 
turning up rusty spears with the civil plough-share, 
striking harrows against empty helmets, and astonished 
at the gigantic size of the bones. And when he would 
describe the whole world in arms, he expresses it by 
saying the plough does not receive its due honour, the 
fields lie uncultivated by the absence of the husband- 
men, and the sickles are beaten into swords. The 
praises of Italy, and the charms of a country life, in the 
second Georgick, seem naturally to flow from the 
subject. The violent effects of lust, in the third book, 
are described with a delicacy not to be paralleled. 
This was a dangerous undertaking; it was venturing to 
steer between Scylla and Charybdis. We need but 
consult the translations to be convinced of this. 
Dryden, endeavouring to keep up the spirit of the 
original, could not avoid being obscene and lascivious 
in his expressions ; and Dr. Tmpp, whose character 
laid him under a necessity of avoiding that rock, has 
sunk into an insipid flatness, unworthy of the poet 
whom he has translated. But in the original, the senti- 
ments are warm and lively, and the expressions strong 



PREFACE. xi 

and masculine. And yet he does not make use of a 
word unbecoming the gravity of a philosopher, or the 
modesty of a virgin. The pestilence that reigned 
among the Alpine cattle is confessedly a master-piece ; 
and not inferior to the admired description which 
Lucretius has given of the plague at Athens. The 
story of Orpheus and Eurydice is told in so dehghtful 
a manner, that, had it been less of a piece with the main 
poem, we could not but have thanked the author for 
inserting it. 

These, and innumerable other beauties, which cannot 
easily escape the observationof a judicious reader, are 
sufficient to make the Georgicks esteemed as the finest 
poem that ever appeared. But the work is not only 
beautiful, but useful too. The precepts contained in it 
are so just, that the gravest prose writers among the 
Romans have appealed to Virgil, as to an oracle, in 
affairs of Husbandry. And though the soil and climate 
of Italy are different from those of England ; yet it has 
been found by experience, that most of his rules may be 
put in practice, even here, to advantage. 

This was the poem on which Virgil depended for 
his reputation with posterity. He desired on his 
death-bed that his iEneis might be burnt; but was 
willing to trust the Georgicks to future ages. The 
reason of this conduct seems to be obvious. The 
jiEneis was unfinished, and had not received the last 
hand of the author. And though it has justly been the 
admiration of all succeeding times, yet this great 
master thought it unworthy of his pen. He was con- 
scious, that it fell short of the lUad, which he had 
hoped to exceed ; and, like a true Roman, could not 
brook a superior. But in the Georgicks, he knew that 

b2 



xii . PREFACE. 

he had triumphed over the Greek poet. This poem 
had received the finishing stroke, and was therefore 
the fittest to give posterity an idea of the genius of its 
author. Nor was the poet disappointed in his expec- 
tations : for the Georgicks have been universally 
admired, even by those who are unacquainted with the 
subject. The descriptions, the similes, the digressions, 
the purity and majesty of the style, have afforded a 
great share of delight to many whom I have heard 
lament, that they were not able to enjoy the principal 
beauties of this poem. I had the good fortune to give 
some of my friends the satisfaction they desired in this 
point : and they were pleased to think, that my obser- 
vations on this poem would be as acceptable to the 
public, as they had been to themselves. I was without 
much difficulty persuaded to undertake a new edition 
of a work, which I had always admired, and endea- 
voured to understand, to which the general bent of my 
studies had in some measure contributed. I was 
desirous in the first place, that the text of ray author 
might be as exact as possible. To this end, I compared 
a considerable number of printed editions, valuable 
either for their age, their correctness, or the skill of the 
editor. I thought it necessary also to enquire after the 
manuscripts that were to be found in England ; that 
by a collection of all the various readings, I might be 
able to lay before the reader the true and genuine ex- 
pression of my author. The manuscripts, which I col- 
lated, being all that I had any information of, are seven 
in number : one of them is in the King^s Library ; one 
in the Royal Library at Cambridge; one in the 
Bodleian Library at Oxford ; two in the Arundelian 
Library, belonging to the Royal Society ; and two in 



PREFACE. xiii 

Dr. Mead^s Library. I have collated all these myself, 
and the reader will find the various readings inserted 
in the following annotations. I have generally followed 
the edition of Heinsius, seldom departing from it, unless 
compelled by some strong reason ; and I have never 
ventured to alter the text by any conjectural 
emendation, or on the authority of a single manu- 
script. 

In composing the annotations, I have carefully 
perused the grammatical comments of Servius, the 
learned paraphrase of Grimoaldus, the valuable collec- 
tions of observations, various readings, and compari- 
sons with the Greek poets, made by Fulvius Ursinus 
and Pierius ; the learned and judicious criticisms of 
La Cerda and Ruaeus, and the curious remarks of 
Father Catrou, whose French edition of Virgil did not 
fall into my hands, till the greatest part of the first 
Georgick was printed, which is the reason that I have 
not quoted him sooner. But I did not depend entirely 
on these learned commentators ; and have often ven- 
tured to differ from them, for which 1 have assigned 
such reasons, as I believe will be found satisfactory. 
They were all unacquainted with the subject, and 
therefore could not avoid falling into considerable and 
frequent errors. When the sense of any word or ex- 
pression has been doubtful, or variously interpreted, I 
have endeavoured to find how it has been used by the 
poet himself in other parts of his works, and by this 
means have sometimes removed the ambiguity. If this 
has failed, I have consulted the other authors, who 
wrote about the same time ; and after them, the earliest 
critics, who are most likely to have retained the true 
meaning. With regard to the precepts themselves, I 



xiv PREFACE. 

have compared them with what is to be found in 
Aristotle, Cato, and Varro, whom our author himself 
evidently consulted ; and with those of Columella, 
Pliny, and Palladius, who wrote before the memory of 
Virgil's rules was lost in the barbarous ages. I have 
generally given the very words of the author, whom I 
find occasion to cite, not taking them at second hand, 
as is too frequent, but having recourse to the originals 
themselves. 

I am not conscious of having assumed any observa- 
tion, for which I am indebted to any other. The 
reader will find many, which I am persuaded are not 
to be met with in any of the commentators. I have 
been very particular in my criticisms on the plants 
mentioned by Virgil : that being the part, in which I 
am best able to inform him, and which, I believe, has 
been chiefly expected from me. The astronomical part 
has given me most trouble, being that with which I am 
the least acquainted. But yet I may venture to lay the 
annotations on this subject before the reader with some 
confidence, as they have had the good fortune to be 
perused by the greatest astronomer of this, or perhaps 
of any Sige ; the enjoyment of whose acquaintance and 
friendship I shall always esteem as one of the happiest 
circumstances of my life. 

I know not whether I need make any apology for 
publishing my notes in English. Had they been in 
Latin as I at first intended, they might have been of 
more use to foreigners : but as they are, I hope they 
will be of service to my own country, which is what I 
most desire. The prose translation will, I know, be 
thought to debase Virgil. But it was never intended 
to give any idea of the poet^s style ; the whole design 



PREFACE. XV 

of it being to help the less learned reader to understand 
the subject. Translations of the ancient poets into 
prose have been long used with success by the French : 
and I do not see why they should be rejected by the 
English. But those who choose to read the Georgicks 
in English verse, may find several translations by emi- 
nent men of our own country, to whom we are greatly 
obliged for their laudable endeavours, though they 
have sometimes deviated from the sense and spirit of 
the author. I have therefore pointed out most of their 
errors, that have occurred to me; which I thought 
myself the more obliged to do, because I have found 
Virgil himself accused of some mistakes, which are 
wholly to be ascribed to a translator. I say not this to 
detract from the merit of any of those learned and 
ingenious gentlemen. I am no poet myself, and there- 
fore cannot be moved by any envy to their superior 
abilities. But as 1 have endeavoured to rectify the 
errors of others, so I shall be heartily glad to have my 
own corrected. I hope they are not very numerous, 
since I have spared no labour to do all the justice to 
my author that was in my power ; and have bestowed 
as much time in attempting to explain this incomparable 
work, as Virgil did in composing it. 



As nothing is more necessary for scholars^ than the 
right understanding of the authors which are put into 
their hands ; and as among the poets VIRGIL is the 
chief; so the accurate English translation^ and learned 
notes which Dr, Martyn has made, with much pains 
and labour, upon the GEORGICKS, the most complete 
and exactly finished work of that poet, deserve to he 
recommended for the use of public and private schools of 
this kingdom. The author^ s preface to this his per- 
formance is very well worth the reader^ s careful perusal 
and particular attention, 

M, MAITTAIRE, 

Southampion'Row, 
July 1, 1746. 



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p. VIRGILII MARONIS 

GEORGICO RUM 

LIBER PRIMUS. 



Quid fadat lastas segetes, quo sidere terram 
Vertere, Maecenas, ulmisque adjungere vites 
Conveniat: quae cura bourn, qui cultus habendo 
Sit pecori: apibus quanta experientia parcis : 



What may make the fields 
rejoice, under what signs it 
may be proper to turn the 
earth, and join tlie vines to 
elms: what care is to be hart 
of oxen, and how other cattle 
may be managed: what ex- 
perience is required to treat 
the frugal bees : 



1. Quid facial d^c] Virgil begins 
this poem with a brief account of 
the subjects of his four books : corn 
and ploughing being the subject of 
the first, vines and other trees of 
the second, cattle of the third, and 
bees of the fourth. 

Lcetas segeles] Seges is common- 
ly used by Virgil to signify the 
field. Joyful is a noble epithet: 
we have the same metaphor used in 
some passages of the Bible. Thus 
it is in the 65th Psalm, ver. 14. 
" The valleys shall stand so thick 
•' with corn, that they shall laugh 
" and sing.'' 

Quo sidere.'\ This expression is 
very poetical. Dryden has debased 
it by translating it. 



•wJien to turn 



The fruitful soil, and when to sow the 
corn : 

«**»*♦«**** 

And ivhen to raise on elms the teeming 
vine. 

And yet in the essay on the Geor- 
gicks, prefixed to Dryden's transla- 



tion, Addison observes that ''Virgil, 
" to deviate from the common form 
" of words, would not make use of 
" tempore, but sidere in his first 
"' verse." 

3. Qui cultus.'] Pierius tells us, 
that in the Roman, the Lombard, 
the Medicean, and some ancient 
manuscripts, it is qui. The same 
reading is in all the manuscripts I 
have collated, except that of the 
King's library, and one of Dr. 
Mead's, where it is quis. La Cerda, 
and some other printed editions, 
have quis : but Heinsius and most 
of the best editors read qui. 

4. Pecori : apibus.] Some editions 
have atque, between pecori and apt' 
bus, to avoid the synaloepha. But 
Pierius assures us, that in all the 
most ancient manuscripts he had 
seen, atque is left out. It is wanting 
in the King's, the Cambridge, the 
Bodleian, and in one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts. In another of Dr. 
Mead's, there is only que, which 
Pierius observes to have been gene- 
rally inserted in the Lombard manu- 



2 p. VIRGILII MARONIS 

fosT^VYl^os^shiu^l;'gffi Hinccanereincipiam. Vos, 6 clarissima mundi 5 

of the world, who lead the -r • i i i i • • 

year siidiog through the sky: Lumina, labeiilem caelo quae ducitis annum : 



script, where there would be a syna- 
Icepha. This figure however is fre- 
quent in Virgil : Pierius quotes many 
instances. I shall mention only one, 
which is in the third Georgick : 

Arcebis gravido pecori ; armentaque 
pasces. 

Heinsius and Masvicius leave out 
atque: but La Cerda, Ruaeus, and 
most of the common editions keep 
it in. 

Experieniia.'] This is generally 
understood to mean the experience 
which is required in us to manage 
bees. Ruaeus interprets it in this 
sense, " quanta industria, ut alan- 
" tur apes frugales." But in his 
notes he proposes another sense, 
making experientia to signify the 
experience, prudence, or ingenuity 
of the bees. " Praeter interpretatio- 
'* nem jam traditam afferri potest 
'" haec altera : Dicam quae sit apum 
'" experientia, prudentia, ingenium, 
'' ars quaedam ; non usu quidem 
'' comparata, sed ingenita." Dry- 
den translates opihus quanta experi- 
entia j 

The UrtJi and genius of the frugal bee. 
Mr. B — translates it. 

What mighty arts to thrifty bees belong. 
Dr. Trapp has it. 

The experience of the parsimonious bee. 

He is very fond of this new inter- 
pretation of Rus&us : " To me (says 
" he) it is much the best sense ; be- 
" cause it is literal, and yet most 
'' poetical. According to the other 
" construction, the expression is ve- 
*' ry harsh; and not to be support- 
" ed by any parallel place that I 



" know of." This learned gentle- 
man is mistaken, when he thinks 
that only Ruceus mentions this sense; 
for Grimoaldus had interpreted this 
passage the same way long before : 
'* postremo quam frugalem solertiam 
" ipsis apibus, in congregando, et 
'' custodiendo melle, divina provi- 
*' dentia concesserit, explicabo." 
But, for my part, I do not see any 
reason to reject the common inter- 
pretation ; nor do I perceive why we 
may not interpret this passage, qui 
cultus sit habendo pecori ; quanta ex- 
perientia sit habendis apibus. Be- 
sides it rather seems harsh to ascribe 
experience to bees, whose prudence, 
as Ruaeus himself confesses, is 7wn 
usu comparata sed ingenila. 

Parcis.~\ This epithet is frequent- 
ly applied to bees : thus Aristotle, 
g|eX««vveuc-<, oi xcci toss a^ycig ai f^tAnixij 
Kxi rag fx.h (pu^ofiivxi i and Pliny, 
Coeterum prceparcce, et qua alioquin 
prodigas atque edaces, non secus ac 
pigras, et ignavas proturbent ; and 
Martial, parca lahorat apis. 

One of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, 
instead of parcis, has paucis, which 
would make this passage be read 
thus; 

apibus quanta experientia, paucis 

Hinc canere incipiam. 

But I think the common reading is 
better. 

5. Vos, ^c] The Poet having 
proposed the subject of his work, 
proceeds to the invocation of those 
deities, who preside over rural af- 
fairs. 

Clarissima mundi Lumina.'\ Some 
are of opinion, that in these words 
Virgil does not invoke the sun and 
moon, but only Bacchus and Ceres. 
Ruaeus assents to this interpretation, 
and gives his reasons why those dei- 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



Liber et alma Ceres, vestro si miinere tellus 
Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arista. 



O Bacchus ami nourishing 
Ceres, if by your bounty 
the earth changed Chaonian 
acorns for fruitful corn. 



ties may deserve such an appella- 
tion; 1. Because they are thought to 
have discovered, and to preside over 
the harvest and vintage : 2. Because 
by them may be understood the sun 
and moon ; for it is proved in Ma- 
crobius, that the sun is not only 
Liber and Dionysius, but also Jupi- 
ter, Mars, Mercury, and Hercules,- 
and that the moon is Ceres, La 
Cerda contends with better reason, 
that the sun and moon are here in- 
voked distinctly from Bacchus and 
Ceres : 1 . Because these words de- 
note only the sun and moon ; 2. Be- 
cause leading the year is more pro- 
perly understood of those which 
lead the whole year, than of those 
which lead only two parts of it : 3. Be- 
cause Virgil seems to imitate Varro 
in this passage, who invokes the sun 
and moon distinctly from Bacchus 
and Ceres : 4. Because Virgil is un- 
derstood in this sense by Apuleius. 
As it is generally thought that 
Virgil had Varro's invocation in his 
mind ; it may not be amiss to place 
it here before the reader. " Et 
'^ quoniam (ut aiunt) Dei facientes 
'' adjuvant, prius invocabo eos, neCj 
'' ut Homerus, et Ennius, Musas, 
'^ sed XII. deos, consenteis neque 
" tamen eos urbanos, quorum ima- 
'' gines, ad forum auratae stant, 
'^ sex mares, et foeminae totidem, 
" sed illos XII. deos, qui maxime 
" agricolarum duces sunt. Primum, 
*' qui omnes fructus agriculturae 
'^ caelo, et terra continent, Jovem, 
" et Tellurem. Itaque quod ii pa- 
" rentes, magni dicuntur, Juppiter 
" pater appellatur, Tellus terra ma- 
'^ ter. Secundo Solem et Lunam, 
" quorum tempera observantur, cum 
" quaedam seruntur et conduntur. 
" Tertio Cererem et Liberum, 
" quod horum fructus maxime ne- 



^' cessarii ad victum : ab his enim 
•' cibus et potio venit e fundo. 
*' Quarto Robigum ac Floram, qui- 
" bus propitiis, neque rubigo fru- 
'' menta, atque arbores corrumpit, 
" neque non tempestive florent. Ita- 
'' que publicse Robigo feriae robiga- 
*' lia, Floree ludi floralia instituti. 
" Item adveneror Minervam et Ve- 
*' nerem, quarum unius procuratio 
" oliveti, alterius hortorum, quo 
'^ nomine rustica vinalia instituta. 
" Nee non etiam precor Lympham, 
(' ac Bonum Eventum, quoniam 
"■' sine aqua omnis arida ac misera 
" agricultura, sine successu ac bono 
" eventu, frustratio est, non cul- 
" tura." 

7. Liber et alma Ceres.'] These 
two deities are properly invoked to- 
gether, because temples were erected 
jointly to them, and they were fre- 
quently united in the same myste- 
ries. Lucretius has brought them to- 
gether much after the same manner: 

Namque Ceres fertur fruges, Liberque 

liquoris 
Vitigeni laticem mortalibus instituisse. 

Si.] Servius thinks si is used in 
this place for siquidem. 

Munere.] Fulvius Ursinus says, 
that, in an ancient manuscript of A. 
Colotius, it is numine. The same 
reading is in one of the Arundelian 
manuscripts. 

8. Chaonimn glandem.] Epirus is 
often called Chaonia, because the 
Chaones, a people of Epirus, for- 
merly ruled over the whole country. 
Dodona was a city of Epirus, near 
which was the famous grove of 
oracular oaks. Thus Virgil poeti- 
cally mentions C/zffo??ian or I)orfowe«« 
acorns, for acorns in general i those 
of Dodona being the most cele- 
brated. 

B 2 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and mixed tlie draughts of 
Acheloian water with the 
juice of the newly discovered 
grapes. And ye Fauns, the 
deities who assist husband men, 
comehilher,0 Faun=,togethtr 
with the Dryads, the nymphs 
who preside over trees: I sing 
your gitts. And ihoo, O Nep- 
tune, 



Poculaque inventis Acheloia miscuit uvis ; 

Et vos agrestum praesentia numina Fauni, 10 

Ferte simul Faunique pedem, Dryadesque pu- 

ellae : 
Munera vestra cano. Tuque 6, cui prima fre- 

mentem 



9. Pocula Acheloia.'] The river 
Acheloiis is said to be the first that 
brake out of the earth : whence the 
name of that river was frequently 
put for water by the ancients. Thus 
Eustathius observes^that, as all high 
mountains were called Ida, so all 
water was called Acheloiis. This 
expression might still be more pro- 
per in the invocation of deities^, as 
being more solemn ; for we find in 
Macrobius, that water was called 
Acheloiis, chiefly in oaths, prayers, 
and sacrifices: Meixifot y«g to v'^a^ 
u^sXmv ■zs'^oa-etyo^ivofiiv h to<V o^KofSf 
xetf h reiTs iv^oiTg, tcett h louq ^va-icciq. 
Fulvius Ursinus quotes many pas- 
sages out of ancient authors, to the 
same purpose. Dryden has quite 
lost the solemnity of the expression, 
by translating it. 

Who gave us corn for mast, for water 
wine. 

Vida alludes to this passage, when 
he tells us that the poets sometimes 
put Acheloiis for water in general : 

Nee deerit tibi, pro fluviis, proque om- 
nibus undis, 
Pocula qui pressis Acheloia misceat uvis. 

10. Jgrestum prcBsentia numina 
Fauni, ^c] The Fauns and Dryads 
were usually invoked together, as 
deities who presided over rural af- 
fairs. " Quin et Sylvanos," says 
Pliny, " Faunosque et Dearum ge- 
" nera sylvis, ac sua numina, tan- 
" quam et caelo, attributa credi- 
*' mus." The original of these 
Fauns is thought to be Faunus, who 
taught the ancient Italians their re- 



ligion, and was worshipped by 
them. He was the father of Lati- 
nus, and delivered his oracles in a 
grove, not by signs, but by voice. 
We have an account of this in the 
seventh iEneid: 

At Rex sollicitus monstris, oracula Fauni 
Fatidici genitoris adit, lucosque sub alta 
Consulit Albunea, nemorum quae max- 
ima sacro 
Fonte sonat. — — 
— Subita ex alto vox reddita luco est. 

The Fauns are so called afando, be- 
cause they speak personally to men. 
They are generally thought to be 
the same with the satyrs. Horace 
seems to make Faunus the same 
with Pan: 

Velox amcenum saepe Lucretilem 
Mutat Lycaeo Faunus ; 

for Lycaeus was one of the habita- 
tions of Pan, as we find in this in- 
vocation : 

Ipse nemus linquens patrium, saltusque 

Lycffii, 
Pan ovium custos. 

The Dryads had their name from 
Sgv?, an oak. 

12. Prima.'] Various are the opi- 
nions of commentators concerning 
the meaning of this epithet. Many, 
says Servius, take it to mean olim. 
In this sense Grimoaldus has inter- 
preted it. La Cerda leaves his 
reader to choose which he pleases 
of four interpretations. 1. The earth 
may be called prima, because it ex- 
isted before the other elements. 
^. Because the earth, together with 



GEOBG. LIB. I. 5 

Fudit equum magno tellus percussa tridenti, 13 £liS*^s?ruTS?hym?ght^^ 

. . . ^ trident, first brought forth the 

Neptune: et cultor nemorum, cui pmgma Less |;^i,fi^|;f„';*|[,^e%roves!''''" "" 



heaven, was said to be the parent 
of the gods. In this sense Dr. 
Trapp has translated it : 

Thou, at whose command 

The parent earth a sprightly steed dis- 
clos'd. 

3. Tellus prima may signify the sea- 
shore, where the horse was pro- 
duced by Neptune; for Virgil in 
another place uses prima terra in 
this sense : 

— Primaque vetant consistere terra. 

4. The poet may allude to Attica, 
the seat of this fable, for the Athe- 
nians pretended to be the most an- 
cient people in the world. I have 
ventured to take it in what seems 
to me the most obvious sense. I 
imagine that the adjective is put 
here only for the adve^-b, of which 
many examples may be produced 
from our Poet: as "pede terram 
" crebra ferit." Nay, he has used 
prima in the same manner in this 
very Georgick : 

Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere 

terram 
Instituit. 

Mr. B — translates it in this sense, 

Thou, whose trident's force 

First clave the earth and rais'd the 
neighing horse. 

13. Fudit equum, Sfcl This al- 
ludes to the story of Neptune's pro- 
ducing a horse at Athens. La 
Cerda offers some strong reasons 
for reading aquam instead of equum, 
which emendation is mentioned also 
by Servius, who says the most an- 
cient manuscripts have aquam. La 
Cerda's reasons are; 1. Herodotus 
says, that in the temple of Erec- 



theus, there was an olive-tree and 
the sea, in memory of the contention 
between Neptune and Minerva. 
2. Varro, when he relates this fable, 
mentions water, not a horse, to be 
produced by Neptune. 3. In the 
best and purest manuscripts of 
Ovid, he finds f return, where the 
common editions have/erww .- 

Stare Deum pelagi, longoque ferire tri- 

dente 
Aspera saxa facit, medioque e vulnere 

saxi 
Exsiluisse//-e/ii»?. 

I have adhered to the common 
reading, for the three following 
reasons: 1. Because I do not re- 
member to have seen aquam in any 
manuscript, or printed edition. 

2. Because it seems proper for Vir- 
gil to invoke Neptune, on account 
of his bestowing the horse on man- 
kind, that animal being celebrated 
in the third Georgick -, whereas the 
sea has nothing to do in this poem. 

3. Because in the third Georgick, 
when he is speaking of the cha- 
racters of a fine stallion, he men- 
tions as the most excellent, that he 
should be descended from the horse 
of Neptune : 

Et patriam Epirum referat, fortesque 

Mycenas ; 
Neptunique ipsa deducat origine gentem. 

14. Cultor nemorum, ^c] He 
means Aristaeus, the son of Apollo 
and Cyrene. This Aristaeus was 
educated by the nymphs, who taught 
him the arts of curdling milk, mak- 
ing bee-hives, and cultivating olive- 
trees. He communicated these be- 
nefits to mankind, on which account 
he had the same divine honours paid 
to him as to Bacchus. 

Cece.'] A very fruitful island in 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



whose three hundred milk 
white steers browse on the 
fruitful bushes of Caea: and 
thou, O Tegeaean Pan, the 

Erotector of sheep, if thy own 
laenalus be thy care, leave 
the groves of tliy own country, 
and the forests of Lycaeus,and 
come hither propitious: and 
thou, o Minerva, who dis- 
coveredst the olive : and thou, 
o youth, who didst teach the 
use of the crooked plough : 
and thou, O Sylvanus, who 
bearest a young cypress-tree, 
plucked up by the roots: 



Ter centum nivei tondent dumeta juvenci: 15 
Ipse nemus linquens patrium, saltusque Lycaei, 
Pan ovium custos, tua si tibi Maenala curae, 
Adsis 6 Tegeaee favens: oleaeque Minerva 
Inventrix : uncique puer monstrator aratri : 
Et teneram ab radice ferens, Sylvane, cupres- 
sum : 20 



the Archipelago, to which Aristaeus 
retired after the unfortunate death 
of his son Actaeon. He was there 
first worshipped as a deity. 

l6. Ipse nemus linquens patrium, 
S^cJ] Pan's country is Arcadia, in 
which were the mountains Lycseus 
and Maenalus and the city Tegea. 

17. -Si.] Grimoaldus, interprets *i 
by quantumvis, and gives this pas- 
sage the following sense : " And 
*' thee, O Arcadian Pan, the illus- 
'^ trious feeder of sheep, I most ear- 
" nestly entreat ; that though thy 
" mountain Maenalus, famous for 
" the pastoral pipe, affords thee 
*^ great pleasure ; yet leave thy na- 
'' tive soil a little while, and engage 
" entirely in overseeing our affairs." 
Ruaeus gives it this sense: " If thou 
" hast any regard for Maenalus, Ly- 
" casus, and the other mountains 
" and woods of thy own Arcadia, 
" leave now those places, and assist 
" me whilst I speak of pastoral af- 
" fairs and trees : for my discourse 
" will do honour to these places, 
" and be of use to them." I have 
followed this sense, as the most ge- 
nerally received. 

18. Tege(Be.~\ Servius and Hein- 
sius read Tegcee; one of the Arun- 
delian manuscripts has Tegehe ; in 
the Cambridge, the Bodleian, and 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts it is 
Tegee; in the King's manuscript, 
and in some of the old printed edi- 
tions, it is TegecB ; La Cerda and 
Ruaeus read Tegecee, which seems 
to be right, for the two first sylla- 



bles are always short; the Greek 
name of the city being Tsy&K. 

Oleceque Minerva Inventrix.] This 
alludes to the story of the conten- 
tion between Neptune and Minerva, 
about naming Athens. Pliny says 
the olive-tree produced on that oc- 
casion by Minerva was to be seen 
in his time at Athens. 

19' Uncique puer monstrator ara- 
tri.^ Some will have this to be 
Osiris, the Egyptian deity ; but 
others, with better reason, think 
that Triptolemus the son of Celeus 
is meant, who was taught the art 
of husbandry by Ceres. La Cerda 
gives the following reasons : 1. It 
is not probable that Virgil would 
invoke the gods of the Egyptians, 
which he reproaches in the eighth 
^neid. 2. Servius observes that 
the Romans had not yet admitted 
the Egyptian worship under Au- 
gustus. 3. As he invokes Minerva 
and other Grecian Gods, why not a 
Grecian inventor of the plough.? 
4. It was a generally received opi- 
nion, that the discovery of com was 
made in Attica. 5. Pausanias says, 
that the Athenians and their neigh- 
bours relate that Triptolemus was 
the inventor of sowing. 6. As Ce- 
leus is mentioned in this very book, 
it is not probable that he would 
omit the mention of his son. 

20. Et teneram ab radice ferens, 
Sylvane, cupressum.'] Sylvanus is 
the god of the woods. Achilles 
Statius, in his commentary on Ca- 
tullus, tells us, that on ancient coins 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



Dique Deaeque omnes, studium quibus arva 

tueri, 
Quique novas alitis non ullo semine fruges, 
Quique satis largum caelo demittitis imbrem. 
Tuque adeo, quern mox quae sint habit ura 

deorum 24 



and all ye Godsand Goddesses, 
whose employment it is to pro- 
tect the fields, nnd ye who lake 
care of the new fruits, that are 
produced without culture, and 
ye who send down the plen- 
teous showers on those which 
are cultivated. And chiefly 
thou, o Caesar, whose future 
seat amongst the gods 



and marbles, Sylvanus is represent- 
ed bearing a cypress-tree plucked 
up by the roots, which fully ex- 
plains this passage ; Mr. B — seems 
not to have been aware of this, 
when he translated it. 

And you, Sylvanus, with your cypress 
lough. 

Sylvanu? is described in a diiferent 
manner by our Poet, in his tenth 
Eclogue : 

Venit et agresti capitis Sylvanus honore, 
Florentes ferulas et grandia lilia quas- 
sans. 

But in the Georgicks, where the 
Poet speaks of trees, and designedly 
omits flowers, it was more proper to 
distinguish Sylvanus by his cypress. 

21. Dique Deceque omnes.'] Hav- 
ing invoked the particular Deities, 
he concludes with an invocation of 
all the rest. This is according to 
the custom of the priests, who used, 
after the particular invocation, to 
invoke all the gods in general. Ful- 
vius Ursinus says he saw a marble 
at Rome with this inscription : 

NOMIOIC 0EOIC 

lOYAIOC 

MAIOP 

ANTONINOC 

La Cerda mentions several inscrip- 
tions to all the gods and goddesses 
in general. 

22. Non ullo.] So I find it in the 
Cambridge, and in one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts. Heinsius, Masvicius, 



and several good editors have the 
same reading. Servius, Grimoal- 
dus. La Cerda, Ruaeus, and many 
others, read nonnullo. Servius gives 
it this sense : you who nourish the 
seeds sown by us, with your own 
seed; that is, with rain and warmth. 
La Cerda interprets it; you who 
produce new fruits, with some 
newly discovered seed. I am loth 
to depart from that excellent ma- 
nuscript of Heinsius, without very 
good reason. And here I think non 
ullo the best reading, notwithstand- 
ing the great authorities I have 
quoted against it. To produce new 
fruit with some seed seems to be a 
very poor expression, and by no 
means worthy of Virgil. But to 
produce new fruits without any seed, 
that is, without being sown by men, 
is a very proper expression. The 
Poet, in these two lines, invokes, 
first, those deities who take care of 
spontaneous plants, and then those 
who shed their influence on those 
which are sown. Thus, at the be- 
ginning of the second Georgick, he 
tells us, that some trees come up of 
their own accord, without culture, 
and that others are sown ; 

Principio arboribus varia est natura cre- 

andis : 
Namque aliae, nullis horuinum eogenti- 

bus, ipsae 

Sponte sua veniunt. 

Pars autem posito surgunt de semine. 

24. Tuque adeo, <^r.] After the 
invocation of these deities, he takes 
an opportunity of making his court 
to Augustus Caesar, by adding him 



^.. 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



is at present uncertain: wiie- Concilia mcertum est, urbesne inviscre, Cassar, 

ther thou wilt accept of the ' ' ' 

faTe'orc5i/;,.°rLs"To'thaut TeiTarunique velis curam, et te iiiaximus orbls 

whole world shall acknow- 

Slfrui'r'oTst'r&^l^^^^^^^ Auctoreiii fruguHi, tempestatumque potenteni 

thy temples with th\' mother's a ■ • . • i , . r%i^ 

myrtle : Accipiat, ciiigcns matema tempora myrto : 28 



to the number, and giving him his 
choice, whether he will be a god of 
earth, sea, or heaven. 

Adeo.] Some think adeo to be only 
an expletive here, others interpret 
it also. Servius, and after him 
most of the commentators, take it 
to signify chiefly. 

Mox.] It is generally agreed that 
mox in this place signifies hereafter ; 
as in Horace : 

JEtas parentum, pejor avis, tulit 

Nos nequiores, mar daturos 

Progeniem vitiosiorem. 

It is usual with the poets to pray 
that it may be long before their 
monarchs are received into heaven; 
thus Horace : 

Serus in caelum redeas, diuque 
Laetus intersis populo Quirini ; 
Neve te nostris vitiis iniquum 

Ocyor aura 
Tollat. 

25. Urbes.'] Almost all the edi- 
tions have iirbis ; some read urheis. 
It is certainly the accusative case 
plural, for the construction will not 
admit of its being the genitive sin- 
gular; wherefore, to avoid confu- 
sion, I have put mhes. Dryden 
imagined urhis to be the genitive 
case singular; and that Virgil meant 
particularly the city of Rome : 

Whether in after times to be declar'd. 
The patron of the world, and Rome's 
peculiar guard. 

Invisere.] La Cerda observes that 
this word is expressive of divinity, 
and quotes several passages from 
the poets in confirmation of his opi- 



27- Tempestatumque potentem.~\ 
These words are generally under- 
stood to mean, that Augustus should 
be the ruler of the seasons. But I 
think Virgil has seldom, if ever, 
used tempestates to signify the sea- 
sons. Sure I am that many pas- 
sages may be produced where he 
has expressed storms by that word. 
I shall content myself with one in 
the first ^neid, where ^olus speaks 
in the following manner to Juno : 

Tu mihi qr.jdcunque hoc regni, tu scep- 
tra, Jovemque 

Concilias : tu das epulis accumbere 
divum, 

Nimborumque facis, tempestatumque pe- 
te ntem. 

Pliny explains tempestates, hail, 
storms, and such like : '' Ante ora- 
" nia autem duo genera esse cae- 
'' lestis injuriae meminisse debemus. 
'' Unum quod tempestates voca- 
" mus, in quibus grandines, pro- 
'' cellae, caeteraque similia intelli- 
•' guntur." 
Mr. B — translates it in this sense; 

Parent of fruits, and powerful of the 
storm. 

The Poet means, no doubt, that 
Augustus shall govern the storms 
in such a manner, that they shall 
not injure the fruits of the earth. 

28. Ciugens matema tempora myr- 
to.'] The myrtle was sacred to 
Venus, as Virgil tells us himself in 
the seventh Eclogue : 

Populus Alcidae gratissima, viiis laccho, 
Formosa myrtu? Veneri. 

He pays a fine compliment to Au- 
gustus in this passage, making him, 



I 



GEORG. LIB. I 



An deus immensi venias maris, ac tua nautae 
Numina sola colant ; tibi serviat ultima Thule, 
Teque sibi generum Tetliys emat omnibus 
undis : 31 

Anne novum tardis sidus te mensibus addas, 
Qua locus Erigonen inter, Chelasque sequentes 



or vvhelher Ihou wilt be a god 
or ihe vast ocean, and be the 
only one invoked by mariners, 
the tartliest parts oV the earth 
shall worship thee, and Tethys 
shall give thee all her waters 
to be her son-in-law: or whe- 
ther thou wilt put thyself, as 
a new sign, among those that 
rise slowly, in the space be- 
tween Virgo and Scorpio; 



as he was very desirous to have it 
thought, to be descended from ^- 
neas, who was the son of Venus. 
The same expression is used with 
regard to ^neas himself, in the 
fifth Mneid : 

Sic fatus, velat materna tempora myrto. 

30. Ultima Thule.'] The King's 
manuscript and one of Dr. Mead's 
have it Thile ; in another of Dr. 
Mead's, and in the Cambridge ma- 
nuscript, it is Tyle ; in the Bod- 
leian manuscript it is Thyle. Thule 
was thought by the ancients to be 
the farthest part of the earth to- 
wards the northj and inaccessible : 
thus Claudian ; 

Ratibusque impervia Thule. 

The place which the Romans meant 
by Thule seems to be Schetland; 
for Tacitus tells us, it was in sight 
of the Roman fleet, when Agricola 
sailed round Britain, and conquered 
the Orkney islands. " Hanc oram 
^^ novissimi maris tunc primum Ro- 
" mana classis circumvecta, insulam 
" esse Britanniam affirmavit, ac si- 
" mul incognitas ad id tempus in- 
*' sulas, quas Orcadas vocant, inve- 
'^ nit, domuitque. Dispecta est et 
" Thule, quam hactenus nix, et 
" hyems abdebat." 

31. Teque sibi generum Tethys, 
SfC.~\ One of the Arundelian manu- 
scripts, and one of Dr. Mead's, have 
Thetis, which is certainly a mistake; 



for the first syllable of Thetis is 
short : 

Dilectaj Thetidi halcyones. 

Tethys is the wife of Oceanus, and 
mother of the nymphs. 

32. Tardis mensibus.'] By the 
slow months he is generally under- 
stood to mean the summer months, 
because the days are then longest ; 
or perhaps, because the summer 
signs rise backwards, he might poe- 
tically feign them to move slower 
than the rest ; thus Manilius : 

Quod tria signa novem signis conjuncta 

repugnant, 
Et quasi seditio caelum tenet. Aspice 

Tauruin 
Clunibus, et Geminos pedibus, testudine 

Cancrum, 
Surgere; cum rectis oriantur caetera 

membris. 
Ne mirere moras, cum Sol ad versa per 

astra 
JEstivum tardis attollit mensibus annum. 

But Dr. Halley has favoured me 
with the true meaning of these 
words, which have given so much 
trouble to the commentators. Leo, 
Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio, are 
really of much slower ascension than 
the other eight signs of the Zodiac; 
to which Virgil no doubt alluded. 

33. Qua locus Erigonen inter, Sfc.] 
Erigone is Virgo. Servius tells us, 
that the Egyptians reckoned twelve 
signs of the Zodiac, and the Chal- 
deans but eleven : that the Chal- 
deans allotted twenty degrees of the 

c 



10 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



SeaS'?.ii?baShis''cK Pandltur; ipse tibi jam brachia contrahit ardens 

to leave for thee a more than _, . . 

tq.ial share of the heavens: ScOrpiUS, Ct 03611 justa pluS parte rellliqUlt. 35 



ecliptic to some signs, and forty to 
others ; whereas the Egyptians al- 
lotted just thirty to each: and that 
the Chaldeans make the Scorpion to 
extend his claws into the place of 
Libra. Thus Ovid : 

Est locus, in geminos ubi brachia con- 

cavat arcus 
Scorpius; et cauda flexisque utrinque 

lacertis, 
Porrigit in spatium signorum membra 

duorum. 

It is certain that Libra was not uni- 
versally received as a sign amongst 
the ancients; and that the Chelce, 
or claws of the Scorpion, were reck- 
oned instead of it. Virgil was by 
no means ignorant of Libra, for he 
mentions it in another place : 

Libra dies somnique pares ubi fecerit 
horas. 

He takes advantage of this differ- 
ence amongst the ancient astrono- 
mers, and accommodates it poeti- 
cally, by placing Augustus, instead 
of Libra, the emblem of Justice, be- 
tween Virgo and Scorpio ; and de- 
scribes the Scorpion as already pull- 
ing back his claws to make room 
for him. He might also in this 
place have a view to the birth of 
Augustus, which was under Libra. 

34. Pandltur ; ipse tibr\ Servius 
made the point after tibi : but I 
think it is better after Panditur. 
The sense is better if ipse be joined 
with Scorpius, than if it be made to 
agree with locus. 

Ardens Scorpius.'} This epithet 
is thought to belong to Scorpio, be- 
cause it is the house of Mars ; thus 
Manilius : 

Piignax Mavorli Scorpius haeret. 



Those, who are born under this sign, 
are supposed by astrologers to be of 
a fiery and turbulent disposition. 
Thus we find in Manilius : 



Scorpius armata violenta cuspide cauda. 
Qua sua cum Phoebi currum per sidera 

ducit, 
Rimatur terras, et sulcis semina miscet. 
In bellum ardcntes animos, et martia 

castra 
Efficit, et luulto gaudentem sanguine 

civera, 
Nee praeda quam caede magis. Cumque 

ipsa sub armis 
Pax agitur, capiunt saltus, sylvasque f)er- 

errant. 
Nunc hominutn, nunc bella gerunt vio- 
lenta ferarum : 
Nunc caput in mortem vendunt, et fu- 

mus arcnse : 
Atque hostero sibi quisque parat, cum 

bella quiescunt : 
Sunt quibus et simulachra placent, et 

ludus in armis. 
Tantus amor pugnae est, discuntque per 

otia bellum, 
Et quodcunque pari studium producitur 

arte. 

Servius hints at another interpreta- 
tion ; that by ardens the Poet may 
mean that the Scorpion is ardent to 
embrace Augustus. 

35. Et cceli justa plus parte relin- 
quit.'] Some manuscripts and print- 
ed editions have reliquit; but the 
best authority seems to be for the 
present tense. One of the Arun- 
delian manuscripts has ut cceli Justa 
plus parte relinquat, which is a good 
reading. But as I find only the 
authority of this single manuscript 
for it, I choose to preserve relinquit. 

Justa plus parte may admit of 
two interpretations : either that the 
Scorpion, by drawing in his claws, 
will relinquish to Augustus tlie un- 
equal share of the heavens, which 
he now possesses: or that by so 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



11 



Quicquid eris, nam te iiec sperent Tartara re- 
gem, 
Nee tibi regnandi veniat tarn dira cupido, 
Quamvis Elysios miretur Graecia campos, 
Nee repetita sequi curet Proserpina matrem, 
Da facilem cursum, atque audacibus annue 
coeptis, 40 

Ignarosque viae mecum miseratus agrestes, 
Ingredere, et votis jam nunc assuesce vocari. 



whatsoever tlioii will be, loi 
let not hell hope lor thee to be 
her king, nor let so dire a thirst 
of reigning enter thy breast, 
(hough Greece admires the 
Elysian fields, and Proserpine 
does not care to tullow her 
mother to the upper regions, 
flo thou direct my cour.>-e. and 
favour my bold undertalcing, 
and with me taking pity on 
the husbandmen who are ig- 
norant of the way, begin thj' 
reign, and accustom thyself 
even now to be invoked. 



doing he will leave him a greater 
share than belongs to one sign. 
Dryden follows the former inter- 
pretation : 

The Scorpion ready to receive thy laws, 
Yields half his region, and contracts his 
claws. 

And Mr. B — 

For thee his arms the Scorpion now 

confines. 
And his unequal share of heaven resigns. 

Dr. Trapp understands it in the 
latter sense: 

— see the burning Scorpion now, 
Ev'n now contracts his claws, and leaves 

for thee 
A more than just proportion of the sky. 

36. Sperent.'] It is spernent in 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, 
and in an old edition printed at 
Nurenberg, in 1492 : but I look 
upon it to be an error of the tran- 
scribers. 

41. Ignarosque vice mecum misera- 
tus agrestes.~\ Servius mentions two 
ways of interpreting this verse. 
One is agrestes mecum ignaros ; in 
which sense Dryden has translated 
it: 

Pity the poet's and the ^ploughman's 
cares. 

The other is rusticis ignarisfave me- 



cum; which seems to be much the 
best sense; for Virgil would hardly 
have declared himself ignorant of 
the subject on which he had under- 
taken to write. This interpretation 
is generally received by the com- 
mentators ; and thus Mr. B — has 
translated it : 

Pity with me th' unskilful peasant's 
cares. 

And Dr. Trapp : 

And pitying, with me, the simple swains 

TT„i ; _/? ii._? 



JnilU J'll^lllg, WILD lilC, II 

Unknowing of their way 



42. Ingredere, el votis Jam nui^c 
assuesce vocari.'^ Ruaeus interprets 
this ingredere viam, which is very 
low. Ingredior signifies to enter 
upon an office. Virgil therefore 
calls upon Augustus to begin now 
to take the divine power upon him. 
Dr. Trapp has very well translated 
this lin,e ; 

Practise the god, and learn to hear our 
pray'rs. 

The poet is justified in this compli- 
ment, by the divine honours which 
began to be paid to Augustus about 
the time that Virgil began his Geor- 
gicks. Thus Horace : 

Praesenti tibi maturos largimur honores, 
Jurandasque tuum per nomen ponimtis^ 

aras. 
C 2 



12 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



In the very beginning of the 
spring, as soon as the snow is 
melted from tlie hoarj- monn- 
lains, ;ui(l the crumbling earth 
is unbound by the zephyrs; 
tiien let my bullock begin to 
groan with, ploughing 'deep, 
and let the share be worn 
bright with the furrow. That 
land fulfils the wishes of the 
most covetous farmer, which 
has twice felt the cold, and 
twice the heat. That man's 
crops have been so large, that 
they have even burst his barns. 
But before wc plough an un- 
known plain, we must care- 
fully obtain a knowledge of 
the winds, 



Vere novo, gelidus canis cum montibus humor 
Liquitur, et zephyro putris se gleba resolvit ; 
Depresso incipiat jam turn mihi taurus aratro 45 
Ingemere, et sulco attritus splendescere vomer. 
Ilia seges demum votis respondet avari 
Agricolae, bis quae solem, bis frigora sensit ; 
Illius immense ruperunt horrea messes. 
At prius ignotum ferro quam scindimus aequor, 



43. Vere novo, Src] The invo- 
cation being finished, he begins his 
work with directions about plough- 
ing, which is to be performed in the 
very beginning of the spring. 

The beginning of the spring was 
in the month oi March ; but Virgil 
did not mean this by his Vere novo. 
The writers of agriculture did not 
confine themselves to the computa- 
tions of astrologers, but dated their 
spring from the ending of the frosty 
weather. Thus Columella has ex- 
plained this very passage : " Ne 
" discedamus ab optimo vate qui 
" ait, ille vere novo terram proscin- 
*' dere incipiat. Novi autem veris 
*' principium non sic observare rus- 
" ticus debet, quemadmodum astro- 
" logus, utexpectet certum diem il- 
*' lum, qui veris initium facere di- 
*' citur. Sed aliquid etiam sumat 
" de parte hyemis, quoniam con- 
" sumptabruma, jam intepescit an- 
" nus, permittitque clementior dies 
'•' opera raoliri. Possunt igitur ab 
" idibus Januariis, ut principem 
** mensem Romani anni observet, 
" auspicari culturarum officia." 

48. Bis quce solem, bis frigora 
sensii.] The King's, the Cambridge, 
the Bodleian, and some of the old 
printed editions, have sentif. The 
commentators have found great dif- 
ficulty in explaining this passage. 
Servius takes it to mean that land, 
which has twice felt the heat of 
the days and cold of the nights ; by 



which he supposes Virgil intends to 
express the two times of ploughing, 
in spring and autumn. Others sup- 
pose that he means the ground should 
lie fallow every other year, and 
thus explain its feeling both heat 
and cold twice: they say it is 
ploughed about the end of winter, it 
rests the next summer, is sown about 
the beginning of winter, and yields 
its crop the following summer. 
They support their interpretation 
by several quotations : but these 
prove only that it was a common 
practice amongst the ancients, to 
cultivate their fields after this man- 
ner. The poet is here advising the 
farmer to be very diligent in plough- 
ing, not to spare the labour of his 
oxen, and to polish his share with 
frequent use; and to encourage 
hhn, he adds, that if he would ex- 
ceed the common rule, by letting his 
land lie fallow two years, and con- 
sequently ploughing it four times, 
his crop would be so large, that his 
barns would scarce contain it. We 
have Pliny's authority, that this is 
thought to be the sense of V^irgil : 
'' quarto seri sulco Virgilius existi- 
" raatur voluisse, cum dixit opti- 
" mam esse segetem, quae bis solem, 
" bis frigora sensisset." Dryden 
erroneously translates ilia seges, that 
crop : it is plain that seges can mean 
nothing but the la?id in this passage. 
oO. Jt prius SiC.'] In these lines 
the poet advises us to consider well 



1 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



13 



Ventos, et varium caeli prsediscere morem 
Ciira sit, ac patrios cultusque habitusque lo- 

corum, 
Et quid quaeqiie ferat regio, et quid quaeque 

recuset. 
Hie segetesj illic veniunt felicius uvae : 
Arborei foetus alibi, atque injussa virescunt 55 
Gramina. Nonne vides croceos ut Tmolus 

odores, 



the various dispositions of the 
weather, the peculiar culturi; 
and nature of the place, and 
what each country will pro- 
duce, and what not. In one 
place corn succeeds, in another 
vines: another abounds with 
fruit-trees, and spontaneous 
lierbs. Do you not see that 
Tmolus yields the odorous 
saftVon, 



the nature of the place, before we 
begin to plough. 

At.'] The King's, the Cambridge, 
the Bodleian, and both Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts, have ac: it is the same 
also in Servius, Paul Stephens, La 
Cerda, and some other printed edi- 
tions. The two Arundelian manu- 
scripts, Heinsius, Ruaeus, Masvi- 
cius, and most of the editors, read 
at. 

51. Cceli morem.'] I take ccelum 
in this place to signify the weather, 
or temperature of the air.' Thus 
Servius interprets it; call, id est 
aeris; and strengthens his opinion 
with these words of Lucretius. 

In hoc cwlo qui dicitur acr. 

La Cerda quotes the authority of 
Pliny for rendering ccBlum the con- 
stellations; but he is mistaken. 
Pliny's words are, " Et confitendum 
" est, cselo maxime constare ea : 
" quippe Virgilio jubente praedisci 
'* ventos ante omnia, ac siderum 
'' mores, nequealiterquam navigan- 
*' tibus servari." In these last words 
it is plain that Pliny alludes to an- 
other passage in this Georgick : 

Praeterea tam sunt Arcturi sidera nobis 
Hoedorumque dies servandi, et lucidus 

anguis ; 
Quam quibus in patriam ventosa per 

aequora vectis 
Pontus et ostriferi fauces tentantur 

Abydi. 



53. Et quid qucEque ferat regio, et 
quid quaque reciiset.~\ Pliny alludes 
to this line, when he says, lib. xviii. 
cap. \ 8. *' In omni quidera parte 
" culturae, sed in hac quidem max- 
'' ime valet oraculum illud. Quid 
" quceqiie regio patiaiur." Colu- 
mella also seems, in his preface, to 
have had it in his view : " Nam 
'^ qui se in hac scientia perfectum 
" volet profiteri, sit oportet rerum 
^' naturae sagacissimus, declinatio- 
*^ num mundi non ignarus, ut explo- 
"■ ratum habeat quid cuique plagce 
" conveniat,quidrepugnat." In lib. v. 
cap. 5. he quotes the very words of 
our poet : " Notandum itaque et di- 
*' ligenter explorandum esse, et quid 
" quceque ferat vegio, et quid J'erre 
" recuset." 

56. Croceos ut Tmolus odores.] 
One of the Arundelian manuscripts 
has croceos Timolus odores. The 
name of this mountain is sometimes 
indeed spelt Timolus or Tymolus ; 
but then the first syllable is short, 
as in the sixth book of Ovid's Me- 
tamorphosis. 

De.seruere sui nymphse vineta Timoli. 

One of Dr. Mead's manuscripts has 
croceos ut Timolus, which cannot be 
right: the other hsisutmolus. Tmo- 
lus is a mountain of Lydia famous 
for the best saffron. Some of the 
commentators would fain understand 



14 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



India ivory, the soft Sabeans India iTiittit cbur, moUes siia thura Saba?i ? 

frankincense, the naked Cha- 

fuuaitr;^°"''''''''^°"''" At Chalybes nudi ferrum, virosaque Pontus 



the poet to allude to the odorous 
wines which are made in that coun- 
try; but the other interpretation 
seems to be the best, as well as the 
most obvious. 

57. India mittkebur.] All authors 
agVee in preferring the elephants of 
India to those of all other countries. 
Ivory is the tusk of that animal, 
not the tooth, as is commonly ima- 
gined. 

MoUes sua thura Sabcei.'^ The 
Sabeans are a people of Arabia 
Felix, in whose country only the 
frankincense-tree is said to grow : 
thus we find in the second Geor- 
gick; 

— Solis est thurea virga Sabaeis. 

Theophrastus also and Pliny both 
affirm that it is found only in Ara- 
bia. Dioscorides mentions an In- 
dian as well as an Arabian frankin- 
cense» Garcias affirms that it does 
not grow in any part of India, and 
that the Indians have all their frank- 
incense from Arabia. Bodaeus a 
Staple, in his notes on Theophrastus, 
observes that the Greek writers 
called that sort of frankincense In- 
dian, which grew in the Islands 
near Arabia, because those Islands 
were formerly under the govern- 
ment of the Indians. Virgil gives 
them the epithet of molles because 
of their effeminacy : thus Manilius; 

Nee procul in violks Arales, terramque 

ferentem 
Delicias. 

And again, 

Et moUes Arales, sylvarum ditia regna. 

58. Chalybes nudi ferrum. 'I There 
is some doubt who these Chalybes 
are. Strabo says the Chaldeans were 
anciently so called, and that their 



chief support is from iron and other 
metals : T?? ^\ T^XTn^ovvlai VTri^KUvixi, 
KXi T»g ^u^vxictctg , Tt'ox^rtvoi ti x.oii XuX~ 

dxToi. O; ^2 vvv XuX2ct7oi, XciAvbgj 

TO ■STX^.xtov avofiu^ovro, x.xB^ ovg (Auhifce. r. 
^x^vxKiu Y^^vTxi, KecTci B-oihXTJxv ftlv 
i)C^v<rx iv^vixv T^y Ik t^'j Zj7i\xit.v2ix(;. 
■sr^ari^x yx^ xXIo-kitxi hrxv^x to o-^ov 
rovTo l« oi T^j yYig rx fi-TxXXx, vvv ^h 
a-i^^fiov, ZT^ori^at ^l x.xt xpyv^ov. ''OXa<; 
^l x,XTX revg roTTovg rovTovg ij zaX^xXix 

Tivh TiXicOg ifiV VTfI^KUTXI yx^ ivB^V? TX 

fig»j fASrxXXav ■Z3-Aij|}j kxI o^vfjcm, yiu^^yii 
21 6v -sroXhx. MiTTiTXi dh ToTg ftgy furxX- 
XtvTxTg ex rZv jUiTxhXuv o fit'og. He 

thinks also that they are the Hali- 
zones of Homer ^ and that Alyba 
in that poet is the same with Cha- 
lyba: 

Justin makes them a people of 
Spain, and says they take their name 
from the river Chalybs, near which 
they dwell. Both Dryden and IsIy. 
B — have followed Justin, translat- 
ing Chalybes Spaniards. They are 
called naked, because the excessive 
heat of their forges made them 
work naked. Thus we find one of 
the Cyclops described, when at 
work : 

Ferrum exercebant vasto Cyclopes in 

antro, 
Brontesque Steropesque et nudits membra 

Pyracmon. 

Virosaque Pontus Cast or ea.] Pon- 
tus is a part of Asia Minor, famous 
for drugs of extraordinary^ efficacy, 
and such as were said to be used in 
enchantments. Virgil mentions 
them in his eighth Eclogue : 

Has herbas, atque base Ponto mihi lecta 
venena 



GEORG. LIB. I. 

Castorea, Eliadum palmas Epiros equarum ? 



15 



and Epirus the best of mares, 
which win the prize in llie 
Olympic games? 



Ipse dedit Moeris : nascuntur plurima 

Ponto. 
His ego saepe lupum fieri et se condere 

sylvis 
Mcerii), saepe aniraas imis excire sepul- 

chris, 
Atque satas alio vidi traducere messes. 

Castor is an animal substance taken 
from a quadruped, which in Latin 
is called Castor and Fiber , in Eng- 
lish the Beaver. It has been ge- 
nerally imagined, that this drug is 
the testicle of that animal, and that, 
when it is close pursued, it bites off 
its testicles, leaves them for the 
hunters, and so escapes. To this 
story we find frequent allusions 
amongst the ancients: thus Juvenal; 

Imitatus castora, qui se 

Eunuchura ipse facit, cupiens evadere 

dam no 
Testiculorum. 

Pliny takes the castor to be the tes- 
ticles of the animal ; but quotes the 
authority of Sextius, against the 
story of its biting them off. " Spec- 
" tabills naturae potentia in his 
" quoque, quibus et in terris et in 
" aqua victus est, sicut et fibris quos 
" castores vocant, et castorea testes 
" eorum. Amputari hos ab ipsis 
" cum capiantur negat Sextius di- 
" ligentissiraus medicinae. Quinimo 
" parvos esse substrictosque, et ad- 
" haerentes spinae, nee adimi sine 
" vita animalis posse." Modern 
authors have discovered that the 
bags which contain the castor are 
not the testicles of the beaver, and 
that they have no communication 
with the penis, and are found in 
both sexes. They are odoriferous 
glands placed in the groin of the 
beaver, as we find in some other 
quadrupeds. The best castor is 
now brought to us from Russia. 
Virosa does not mean in this place 
poisonous, but efficacious or powerful. 



Virus, from which it seems to be 
derived, is sometimes used in a good 
sense, as we find it in Statins : 

— Jungam ipse manus, atque omne 

henigne 
ViriiSy odoriferis Arabum quod doctus 

in arvis, 
Aut Amphrysiaco pastor de gramine 

carpsi. 

In the passage just now quoted from 
the eighth Eclogue we find the ve- 
nena of Pontus not to signify any 
thing destructive to life; but drugs 
of such extraordinary power, that 
by their means Moeris could turn 
himself into a wolf, raise spirits, 
and remove a crop of corn from one 
field to another. 

Dryden has followed the ancient 
tradition of the testicles : 

Thus Pontus sends her beaver stones 
from far. 

Mr. B — translates virosa, heady. 
Dr. Trapp observes that virus and 
venenum sometimes carry the sense 
o£ (puQfixKoy, and so translates it, 

Pontus, its castor's drug, 

which is very low. 

50. Eliadum palmas Epiros equa^ , 
rum.'] Elis is a country of Pelopon- 
nesus, in which was the city of 
Olympia, famous for the temple of 
Jupiter Olyrapius, and the Olympic 
games. Epirus was formerly a 
kingdom of Greece, famous for 
horses. In the third Georgick we 
find Epirus recommended as breed- 
ing good horses : 

Et patriam Epirum referat. 

The Phoenicians are thought to have 
given this country its name, from 
*1*3K abir, which signifies strong; 
whence bulls and horses are called 
tun^lK abirim, being the strongest 
of beasts. Thus Epirus will signify 



16 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



These laws and eternal cove- 
nants were laid by nature on 
certain places, ever since the 
time that Deucalion threw the 
stones into the uninhabited 
world: whence a laborious 
race of men were produced. 
Come on then, immediately 
from the very first months of 
the year. 



Continuo has leges, aeternaque foedera certis 60 
Imposuit natura locis, quo tempore primum 
Deucalion vacuum lapides jactavit in orbem : 
Unde homines nati durum genus. Ergo age, 

terrae 
Pingue solum primis extemplo a mensibus anni 



the courdry of hulls and horses. It 
wa^ certainly famous for both these 
animals. 

60. Continuo has leges, c^c] Af- 
ter having observed that nature has 
subjected the world to these laws, 
that different places should produce 
different things, ever since the time 
of Deucalion, he resumes his sub- 
ject, and gives directions when a 
rich soil should be ploughed, and 
when a poor one. 

62. Deucalion vacuum lapides, t^c] 
The story of Deucalion is in the 
first book of Ovid's Metamorphosis. 
We are there told that, when the 
world was destroyed by a deluge, 
Deucalion only, with his wife 
Pyrrha, survived. They consulted 
the oracle of Themis, in what man- 
ner mankind was to be restored. 
The oracle commanded them to 
throw the bones of their great mo- 
ther behind their backs. By their 
great mother they understood the 
earth to be meant, and her bones 
they apprehended to mean the 
stones. They obeyed this command, 
and the stones which Deucalion 
threw became men, and those which 
Pyrrha threw became women. Ovid 
concludes the fable with a remark, 
almost in Virgil's words ; 

Inde genus durum sumus, experiensque 

laborum, 
Et documenta damus, qua simus origine 

nati. 

64. Primis a mensibtis ajini.'] The 
preposition a is wanting in the Cam- 
bridge manuscript. By these words 



he means the same that he did by 
vere novo in the forty-third verse in 
this Georgick. He there mentions 
the beginning of the spring, as the 
season to begin ploughing. Here he 
is more particular, and informs us, 
that a rich soil only is to be ploughed 
so early, and gives his reason for it. 
Pliny has quoted this passage of our 
poet, in lib. xviii. c 26". He is there 
speaking of what work the hus- 
bandman is to do when Favonius 
begins to blow, which he makes to 
be about the eighth of February, 
sooner ov later. " Interim," says he, 
" ab eo die, quisquis ille fuerit, quo 
" flare coeperit, non utique vi. Idus 
" Febr. sed sive ante, quando prae- 
" vernat, sive post, quando hyemat: 
" post eam diem, inquara, innu- 
" raera rusticos cura distringat, et 
'' prima quaeque peragantur quae 
" differri nequeunt. — Terrain futu- 
'' rum proscinditur, Virgilio maxi- 
" me autore, ut glebas sol coquat. 
" Utilior sententia, quae non nisi 
" temperatum solum in medio vere 
'* arari jubet: quoniam in pingui 
"^ statim sulcos occupant herbae, 
" gracili insecuti aestus exiccant : 
'' tum namque succura Venturis se- 
'^ minibus auferunt. Taliaauturano 
" melius arari certum est." Colu- 
mella tells us, that a fat soil should 
be ploughed in February, if the wea- 
ther be warm enough to admit of 
it. " Colles pinguis soli, peracta 
" satione trimestri, mense Martio, si 
" vero tepor caeli, siccitasque regio- 
" nis suadebit, Februario slatira 
" proscindendi sunt." 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



17 



Fortes invertant tauri, glebasque jacentes 65 
Pulverulenta coquat maturis solibus aestas. 
At si non fuerit tellus foecunda, sub ipsum 
Arcturum tenui sat erit suspendere sulco : 
Illic, officiant laetis ne frugibus herbae, 
Hie, sterilem exiguus ne deserat humor arenam. 
Alternis idem tonsas cessare novales, 71 



let llie strong bullocks turn up 
the ricli soil, and let the clods 
lie to be baked by (he dusty 
snnfimer with the hot beams 
of the sun. But if the soil be 
poor, it will be sufficient to 
turn it up lightly with a small 
furrow, about the rising of 
Arcturus: the design of the 
first of these precepts is to hin- 
der the weeds from hurting 
the joyful corn; that of the 
second is to prevent the small 
quantity of moisture from for- 
saking the barren sand. Suffer 
also your arable land to lie 
tallow every other year. 



65. Fortes invertant ianri.'\ This 
agrees with what he said before, 

Depresso incipiat jam turn mihi tauvus 

aratro 
Ingemere. 

He advises the husbandman to make 
deep furrows in the rich ground, 
which he expresses poetically by re- 
quiring the bullocks to be strong. 

66. Maturis solibus.] Pierius tells 
us that in the Roman manuscript it 
is maturis frugibus. 

67. Sub ipsum Arcturum.'] Arctu- 
rus rises, according to Columella, 
on the fifth of September : " Nonis 
" Septembris Arcturus exoritur." 
According to Pliny, it rises eleven 
days before the autumnal equinox, 
that is, a week later than Colu- 
mella s account: " Post eos, rursus 
" Austri frequentes, usque ad sidus 
" Arcturi, quod exoritur undecim 
" diebus ante aequinoctium autum- 
" ni." In another place he tells 
us, that, according to the Athenians, 
Arcturus rises on the fifth of Sep- 
tember, but, according to Caesar, 
on the twelfth : " Vindemiator M- 
" gypto nonis exoritur. Atticae 
" Arcturus matutino, et sagitta oc- 
" cidit mane. Quinto Idus Septem- 
" bris Csesari capella oritur vesperi. 
*' Arcturus vero medius pridie Idus, 
" vehementissimo significatu terra 
" marique per dies quinqhe." Co- 
lumella no doubt followed the Greek 
calculation. This author gives the 
same advice about ploughing a poor 



soil; and for the same reason: 
*' Graciles clivi non sunt sestate 
*' arandi, sed circa Septembres ca- 
" lendas; quoniam si ante hoc tem- 
'^ pus proscinditur, effoeta et sine 
^' succo humus aestivo sole peruri- 
'' tur, nullasque virium reliquias ha- 
" bet. Itaque optime inter Calen- 
'' das, et Idus Septembris aratur, 
" ac subinde iteratur, ut primis plu- 
'' viis sequinoctialibus conseri pos- 
" sit : neque in lira, sed sub sulco 
" talis ager seminandus est." 

" Arcturus, in the time of Colu- 
" mella and Pliny, rose with the 
" sun at Athens, when the sun was 
"in 12 J of Virgo; but at Rome 
" three days sooner, the sun being 
'' in Q\ of Virgo : the autumnal 
" equinox then falling on the 24th 
" or 25th of September." Dr. 
Halley. 

71. Alternis idem, S^c] In this 
passage the poet advises us to let the 
ground lie fallow every other year, 
or else to change the grain. 

Tonsas novales.] Novalis signi- 
fies, according to Pliny, a ground 
that is sown every other year: 
*' Novale est, quod alternis annis 
«' seritur." Varro says, it is one 
that has been sown before it is re- 
newed by a second ploughing : " Se- 
" ges dicitur quod aratum satum 
" est i arvum quod aratum nee dum 
'' satum est : novalis ubi satum fuit 
" ante, quam secunda aratione re- 
*' novetur." It is sometimes also 
used to expi'ess a land that is new 

D 



18 



P. VIRC^ILII MARONIS 



hard with lyings'tiif'oS Et segnem patiere situ durescere campum. 

changing the season, sow the ... _ • t n 

golden corn, Aut iDi iiava scres mutato sidere larra, 



broken up. The epithet tonsas be- 
ing added to novales, seems to bring 
it to Varro's sense ; if we must un- 
derstand it to mean the same with 
^demess.as, as it is generally inter- 
preted. But perhaps the poet may 
mean by tonsas novales, new broken 
up fields that had lately been grazed 
by cattle. Our author uses tondeo 
in this sense, at the beginning of 
this Georgick; 

Tondent dumeta juvenci. 

And in the third ^neid : 

Equos in gramine vidi 

Tondentes campum late. 

73. Mutato sidere.l Pierius says 
it is mutato semine in the Roman 
manuscript, which seems a plainer 
and more intelligible reading than 
mutato sidere : but as we have only 
the authority of a single manuscript 
for it, I have preserved the common 
reading. By mutato sidere, the poet 
must mean that pulse are sown in 
one season, and corn in another. 

Farra'] Far seems to be put here 
for corn in general. It may not 
however be improper to say some- 
thing in this place concerning that 
grain; which was so famous amongst 
the ancient Romans. It seems to 
me pretty plain, that it is the tjux 
or ^gfls of the Greeks, and what we 
call in English spelt. It is a sort of 
corn, very like wheat j but the chaff 
adheres so strongly to the grain, 
that it requires a mill to separate 
them, like barley. Dionysius of 
Halicarnassus says expressly, that 
the Greeks call that ^e/*, which the 
Romans call far. The principal 
objection to this seems to be, that 
Pliny treats of zea and far, as two 
different sorts of grain. But this is 



of no weight with me, for it is plain 
that Pliny borrows what he says of 
zea from the Greek writers. In 
lib. xviii. cap. 8. he says it is peculiar 
to Egypt, Syria, Cilicia, Asia, and 
Greece : " Frumenti genera non 
" eadem ubique : neque ubi eadem 
" sunt, iisdem nominibus. Vulga- 
" tissima far, quod adoreum veteres 
" appellavere, siligo, triticum. Haec 
" plurimis terris communia. Arinca 
" Galliarum propria, copiosa et Ita- 
' Mi 86 est. ^gypto autem ac Syriae, 
" Ciliciaeque et Asiae, ac Graeciae 
" peculiares zea, olyra, tiphe." In 
cap. 10, he says, " Apud Graecos 
'' est zea." Thus we may reason- 
ably suppose that what Pliny says 
of zea is taken from the Greek au- 
thors; and that they are the same 
grain, notwithstanding his having 
distinguished them. Besides it may 
not be amiss to observe, that our 
poet has given, in the 219th verse 
of this Georgick, the epithet robusta 
to farra; which is the very same 
that Theophrastus has given to zea : 
Tav ol oiJCoio'Trv^ui, Kxt ofcciox^iB^eJi, clot 
L^itel^, 71(^7}?, oXv^xg, /S^dfiov, xiytXuTFeg, 
ta-^v^en^tv xcti (auKitx Kx^Tri^ofCsvor , i 
^iU. I shall add only one obser- 
vation more; that/ar was the corn 
of the ancient Italians, and was fre- 
quently used in their sacrifices and 
ceremonies, whence it is no wonder 
that this word was often used for 
com in general. Thus in several 
counties of England, we find the 
several sorts of grain called by their 
proper names, and that which is 
the chief produce of the country 
dignified with the name of corn. 
That far was the food of the ancient 
Italians, we have Pliny's authority : 
" Primus antiquis Latio cibus." 
That it was used in sacrifices, I shall 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



19 



Unde prius l^tum siliqua quassante legumen, SSrurp^^rJ?tllih1t'ter^Sl 



quote only the authority of Virgil 
himself, in the fifth ^neid : 

Haec memorans cinerem et sopitos sus- 
citat ignes : 

Pergameumque Larem, et canae pene- 
tralia Vestae 

Farre pio et plena supplex veneratur 
acerra. 

74. Lcetam siliqua quassante legu- 
men»] Pierius seems to approve of 
ledum instead of Icetum ; as it is in 
the Roman manuscript ; but I take 
Icetum to be the true reading. By 
Icetum legumen Virgil intends to ex- 
press beans; which were esteemed 
as the principal sort of pulse. Thus 
Pliny; " Sequitur natura legumi- 
" num, inter quae maximus honos 
" fabis." The same author, quot- 
ing this passage of Virgil, substi- 
tutes faba for legumen : " Virgilius 
" alternis cessare arva suadet, et 
" hoc, si patiantur ruris spatia, uti- 
*' lissimum procul dubio est. Quod 
" si neget conditio, far serendum 
" unde lupinum, aut vicia, ant faba 
" sublata sint, et quae terrara faciant 
" laetiorem." He mentions beans 
also in another place, as fattening 
the soil, instead of dung : " Solum 
" in quo sata est laetificat stercoris 
" vice." Cato also, where he is 
speaking of what enrich the earth, 
begins with lupinum, faba, vicia. 
Legumen is derived h legendo, be- 
cause pulse are gathered by hand, 
and not reaped according to Varro : 
*' Alii legumina, alii, ut Gallicani 
" quidam, legaria appellant, utraque 
" dicta a legendo, quod ea non se- 
" cantur, sed vellendo leguntur." 
Pliny has almost the same words, 
speaking of the legumina : " Quae 
** velluntur e terra, non subsecan- 
'' tur : unde et legumina appellata, 
" quia ita leguntur." The epithet 
quassante seems not to have been 



well understood by the commenta- 
tors. They generally indeed agree 
with Servius, in telling us that quas- 
sante is used for quassata ; but 
then they proceed no farther than 
to tell us, that they suppose the 
poet alludes to the shaking of the 
pods with the wind. I have never 
observed any remarkable shaking in 
bean pods, nor does their firm ad- 
herence to the stalk seem to admit 
of it. I rather believe the poet al- 
ludes to the method used by the 
Romans, of shaking the beans out 
of the pods. Pliny just mentions it 
in his eighteenth book, where he 
says faba metitur, deinde concutitur. 
Columella has given us a particular 
account of it. He says they untie 
a few bundles at a time, at the far- 
ther end of the floor, and then three 
or four men kick them forward, 
and strike them with sticks or pitch- 
forks, and when they are come the 
whole length of the floor, they ga- 
ther the stalks into a heap, and so 
the beans are shaken out. " Max- 
'^ ime ex leguminibus ea, et sine ju- 
** mentis teri, et sine vento purgari 
" expeditissime sic poterit. Modi- 
*' cus fasciculorum numerus reso- 
'^ lutus in extrema parte areae col- 
" locetur, quem per longissimum 
*' ejus, mediumque spatium tres vel 
" quatuor homines promoveant pe- 
" dibus, et baculis furcillisve con- 
*' tundant : deinde cum ad alteram 
" partem areae pervenerint, in acer- 
*' vum culmos regerant. Nam se- 
" mina excussa in area jacebunt, su- 
" perque ea paulatim eodem modo 
" reliqui fasciculi excutientur. Ac 
*' durissiraae quidem acus resectae, 
*' separataeque erunt a cudentibus : 
" rainutae vero, quae de siliquis cum 
"faba resederunt, aliter secernen- 
" tur. Nam cum acervus paleis, 
d2 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



or the small seeds of vetches , 
or the brittle stalks, and rat- 
tling haiira of the bitter lupine. 
For a crop of flax, or oats, 
or drowsy poppies, burns the 
land. 



Aut tenues foetus viciae, tristisque lupini 75 
Sustuleris fragiles calamos, sylvamque sonantem. 
Urit enim lini campum seges, urit avenae, 
Urunt lethaeo perfusa papavera somno. 



" granisque mistus in unum fuerit 
" conjectus, paulatim ex eo ventila- 
'* bris per longius spatium jactetur, 
" quo facto, palea, quae levior est, 
*' citra decidet : faba, qu£e longius 
" emittetur, pura eo perveniet, quo 
" ventilator earn jaculabitur." I 
have rendered quassante, shattered, 
which I take to be the true mean- 
ing of the word : for it appears by 
Columella's account, that the pods 
are broken and shattered to let the 
beans come out. Quasso is fre- 
quently used in this sense ; and our 
English word to quash is derived 
from it. 

75. Tenues foetus vicice.'] The 
seeds of vetches, or tares, are very 
small in proportion to beans and lu- 
pines; and therefore the poet has 
distinguished them by the epithet 
of tenues. They are also reckoned 
to fertilize the fields : Et vicia pin- 
guescunt arva, says Pliny. 

Tristis lupini] This epithet is 
well chosen, for lupinus is derived 
from Av^jj, irislitia. The ancient 
writers of agriculture agree that lu- 
pines being sown in a field are as 
good as dung to it. Columella says 
they will make the husbandman 
amends, if he has no other dung: 
*' Jam vero ut ego reor, si deficia- 
*' tur omnibus rebus agricola, lupini 
" certe expeditissimum praesidium 
" non deesse, quod cum exili loco 
*' circa Idus Septembris sparserit, et 
" inaraverit, idque tempestive vo- 
'' mere vel ligone succiderit, vim 
" optimae stercorationis exhibebit." 
Pliny also mentions lupine as an ex- 
cellent manure : ' ' Inter omnes au-. 
" tem constat nihil esse utilius lupini 



" segete, priusquam siliquetur, ara- 
*' tro vel bidentibus versa, mani- 
*' pulisve desectae circa radices ar- 
*' borum ac vitium obrutis. * * * Se- 
" getem stercorant fruges, lupinum, 
" faba, vicia." And in the eigh- 
teenth book, speaking of lupine, he 
says; *' Pinguescere hoc satu arva 
" vineasque diximus. Itaque adeo 
" non egit fimo, ut optimi vicem re- 
" praesentet." 

77. Urit enim lini camputn seges. ~\ 
Most authors agree with V'irgi], that 
flax bums or impoverishes the soil. 
Columella says it is so exceedingly 
noxious, that it is not safe to sow it, 
unless you have a prospect of great 
advantage from it. " Lini semen, 
*' nisi magnus est ejus in ea regione 
*' quam colis proventus, et pretium 
" proritat, serendum non est; agris 
" enim praecipue noxium est." Pal- 
ladius observes also that it exhausts 
the ground: " Hoc mense lini se- 
*' men seremus, si placet, quod pro 
" malitia sui serendum non est, 
** nam terrae uber exhaurit." Pliny 
quotes Virgil, for this observation : 
" Virgilius et lino segetem exuri, 
"et avena, et papavere arbitratur." 

78. Urunt lethcto perfusa papave- 
ra somno.'] Poppies were commonly 
sown by the ancients : not that with 
the scarlet flowers, which is com- 
mon in our com fields, but those 
sorts which we cultivate in our gar- 
dens. That they were cultivated by 
the ancient Romans, is plain from 
the directions, which all their writers 
give about sowing them. That it 
was not our corn poppy, but that of 
the gardens, appears from the figure 
of its head in the hand of manv 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



21 



Sed tamen alternis facilis labor : arida tantum 
Ne saturare fimo pingui pudeat sola ; neve 80 
EiFcetos cinerem immundum jactare per agros. 
Sic quoque mutatis requiescunt fcetibus arva : 



But to sow every other year 
is an easy labour, only be not 
ashamed to enrich the dry 
soil with fat dung; nor to 
spread unclean ashes over the 
exhausted fields. Thus also 
the fields rest with changing 
the grain ; 



Statues of Ceres. The head of the 
garden poppy is round, but that of 
9ie red poppy is long and slender, 
as Pliny has justly observed, lib. xx. 
cap. 18. "Sativum omne magis ro- 
" tundat capita; at sylvestri longum 
" ac pusillum." This author there- 
fore seems to contradict himself, 
when he reckons this red ' sort, lib. 
xix. cap. 9' amongst the cultivated 
poppies. He there mentions three 
sorts ; the white one, of which the 
ancients used to eat the seeds : the 
black one, from which opium is ob- 
tained : and the rhoeaSj or erraticum, 
which frequently grows amongst 
barley, resembling rocket, a cubit 
in height, with a red flower which 
soon falls off, whence it is called in 
Greek rhoeas. This is a plain de- 
scription of our red poppy or corn- 
rose. I shall set down the author's 
own words : " Papaveris sativi tria 
" genera : candidum, cujus semen 
•* tostum in secunda mensa, cum 
*' melleapudantiquosdabatur. Hoc 
" et panis rustici crustae inspergitur 
" affuso ovo inhaerens, ubi inferio- 
" rem crustam apium githque cere- 
** ali sapore condiunt. Alterum ge- 
*' nus est papaveris nigrum, cujus 
** scapo inciso lacteus succus exci- 
" pitur. Tertium genus rhoeam vo- 
" cant Graeci, id nostri erraticum. 
** Sponte quidem, sed in arvis, cum 
'* hordeo maxime nascitur, erucae 
" simile, cubitali altitudine, flore 
" ruffo et protinus deciduo, unde et 
" nomen a Graecis accepit." The 
white poppy is cultivated in our 
physic gardens; the heads being 
much in use : for of them is made 
the syrup, which is generally known 
by the name of Diacodiim. The 



black poppy is not only sown in 
our gardens, but grows wild also in 
several places. I have found it in 
great plenty on banks, between 
Cambridge and Ely. The seeds of 
it are«old for birds, under the name 
of maw seed. The beautiful double 
poppies, so frequent in gardens, are 
the same species, the fulness of the 
flowers being only an accidental va- 
riet)^ That poppies, especially the 
juice flowing from their wounded 
heads, which is well known under 
the name of opium, procure sleep, 
hardly requires to be mentioned. 
On this account Virgil says they 
are lethoeo perfusa somno: and in the 
fourth Georgick he calls them lethcea 
papavera : and in the fourth ^neid 
he has soporifei'um papaver. Lethe 
is the name of a river in the infernal 
regions, which causes those who 
drink of it entirely to forget every 
thing : whence our poet gives the 
epithet leihean to sleep. 

79- Sed tamen alternisfacilis labor.] 
He returns to his first precept, about 
ploughing every other year, and ob- 
serves that this makes the labour 
easy ; and adds that dunging must 
not be omitted, if the soil be poor or 
worn out. This is the generally re- 
ceived interpretation: but Grimo- 
aldus gives another sense to this 
passage. He takes it to mean that, 
though you should sow flax, oats, or 
poppies, which greatly exhaust the 
ground; yet you may easily remedy 
this inconvenience, by letting the 
ground lie fallow one year, if you do 
but take care to dung it diligently. 
82. Mutatis requiescunt fcetibus 
arva.~\ The sense of this passage is, 
that the change of grain is of service 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



"^Xl^!'^?„®ri«^?„'l^n!^® Nee nulla interea est inaratae ffratia terrae. 

any grace wanting in an on- o 

' 'hed field. It is " 



ploaghed field. 

also beneficial to set fire to 

the barren fields. 



Saepe etiam steriles incendere profuit agros, 



to the ground, and in some measure 
answers the same end as letting it 
lie fallow. 

83. Nee nulla interea est inaratas 
gratia terrce.] By inaratce is meant 
uncultivated. He here again encou- 
rages the husbandman to let his 
ground lie fallow a year or two, if 
he can afford to wait so long : and 
assures him that his forbearance will 
be well rewarded. Thus at the be- 
ginning of this Georgick, he tells 
us, that a husbandman, who lets his 
ground lie fallow two years, will 
reap such an abundant crop, that 
his barns will scarce contain it : 

Illius immensse ruperunt horrea messes. 

84>. Scepe etiam, 4*^.] In this pa- 
ragraph he relates the method of 
burning a barren soil ; and assigns 
four reasons, why it may be of ser- 
vice. 

Grimoaldus does not understand 
this passage as it is commonly un- 
derstood ; that the poet proposes so 
many different, and even contrary 
conjectures, concerning the benefit 
accruing from burning a barren 
field. He rather thinks that Virgil 
intends to describe these four cures 
for so many causes of barrenness. 
If the soil be poor, burning will 
make it fat and full of juice : if it 
be watery, the heat will make the 
superfluous moisture transpire: if 
it be a stiff clay, the warmth wiU 
open the pores, and relax the stiff- 
ness : if it be a spongy and thirsty 
soil, the fire will bind and condense 
it. La Cerda quotes Bersmanus for 
the same interpretation: and ap- 
proves of it. 

Virgil is generally thought not to 
have intended to speak of burning 
the ground itself, but only of burning 



the stubble. Pliny seems to under- 
stand him in this sense: " Sunt qui 
" accendunt in arvo et stipulas, 
" magno Virgilii prseconio." Ser- 
vius, in his comment on these words, 
incendere profuit agros, says, '* Non 
" agros, sed ea quae in agris sunt, id 
" est stipulas vel quisquilias : hoc 
" est purgamenta terrarum, et alia 
" inutilia concremare." Grimoaldus 
also interprets this passage ; * * SaB- 
" penuraero etiam herbas, frutices, 
*' et stipulam igne absumpsisse, ad 
'' reparandam steriliura agrorum 
" foecunditatem nonnihil confert." 
Dryden also translates it in this 
sense : 

Long practice has a sure improvement 

found. 
With kindled fires to burn the barren 

ground ; 
When the light stubble to the flames 

resign'd 
Is driv'n along, and crackles in the wind. 

And Dr. Trapp : 

Oft too it has been gainful found to burn 
The barren fields with stubble's crackling 

flame. 

He says, '* agros atque stipulam 
'* flammis : i. e. agros flammis stipu- 
** lae." Mr. B— differs from them 
all, and says, '* Virgil speaks of two 
'' different things, of burning the 
" soil itself before the ground is 
" ploughed, and of burning the 
" stubble after the com is taken off 
*' from arable land." This seems 
to be the most natural interpreta- 
tion. 

Scepe."] Servius tells us that some 
join scepe to incendere. If this in- 
terpretation be admitted, we must 
render this passage, "It is bene- 
" ficial also to set fire often to the 
" barren fields." 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



23 



Atque levem stipulam crepitantibus urere flam- 
mis : 85 
Sive inde occultas vires, et pabula terrae 
Pinguia concipiunt : sive illis omne per ignem 
Excoquitur vitium, atque exudat inutilis humor: 
Seu plures calor ille vias, et caeca relaxat 
Spiramenta, novas veniat qua succus in herbas. 
Seu durat magis, et venas adstringit hiantes; 91 
Ne tenues pluviae, rapidive potentia solis 
Acrior, aut Boreae penetrabile frigus adurat. 



and to burn the ii^ht stubbie 
with crackling flames: whe- 
ther by this means the lands 
receive some hidden powers, 
and rich nourishment : or whe- 
ther every vicious disposition 
is removed by the heat, and 
the superfluous moisture made 
to transpire: or whether the 
warmth opens more passages, 
and relaxes the bidden pores, 
through which the juice is de- 
rived to the new herbs: or 
whether it hardens and con- 
tracts the gaping veins, and 
so hinders the small showers, 
or parching heat of the sun, 
or the piercing cold of Boreas 
from scorching it. 



85. Atque levem stipulam crepitaU' 
tibus urere flammis.] It is scarce 
possible to avoid observing how 
beautifully the rapidity of this verse, 
consisting entirely of Dactyls, ex- 
presses the swiftness of the flame 
spreading over a stubble field. Vida 
quotes this passage, amongst the 
many beautiful examples of making 
the sound an echo to the sense : 

Hinc etiam solers mirabere saepe legendo 
Sicubi Vulcanus sylvis incendia misit, 
Aut agro stipulas flamma crepitante cre- 
mari. 

86. Pabula.] The commentators 
generally suppose, that when the 
poet speaks of this nourishment to 
be derived from the fire, he alludes 
to the philosophy of Heraclitus; 
that all things are created out of 
fire. La Cerda, with better rea- 
son, thinks, that he means the 
nourishment proceeding from the 
ashes. 

92. Ne tenues pluvice, rapidive po- 
tentia solis acrior.'] This passage 
has very much perplexed some of 
the commentators. They think it 
strange that rain should be said to 
scorch the ground. La Cerda in- 
terprets it " ne pluviae, quae tenuitate 
" sua penetrant, herbas perdani" 
Dryden translates it. 

Lest soaking show'rs should pierce her 
secret seat. 



And Dr. Trapp, 



Lest drisling show'rs 



Should soak too deep. 

This seems to be taking too great a 
liberty with Virgil ; to suppose an 
ellipsis, and then to fill it up with 
what we please. I would rather 
suppose that by tenues, he does not 
mean quce tenuitate sua penetrant/ 
but, as Servius tells us, some inter- 
pret it, inutileSf Jejunce, macrce, in 
opposition to pingues, as te?iuis uhi 
argilla. If we understand it in this 
sense, why might not the poet say 
that the fire, by contracting the 
gaping veins of the earth, hinders 
the small showers from scorching 
the earth : that is, hinders the earth 
from being scorched or dried, by 
the smallness of the showers, which 
are not sufficient to moisten it, but 
soakthrough its gaping chinks. This 
interpretation will be still clearer if 
with Schrevelius we read rapidique, 
instead of rapidive: for then the 
sense will be that the small showers 
joined with a very parching heat 
will dry up the spongy, thirsty soil. 
They may poetically be said to parch 
the earth, because they are not suf- 
ficient to hinder it from being 
parched. 

93. Penetrabile frigus.] Thus Lu- 
cretius ; 

Permanat calor argentum, penetraleque 
frigus. 



24 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



lie also greatly helps the fields, 
who breaks the sluggish clods 
with harrows, and draws the 
osier hurdles: nor does yellow 
Ceres look down upon him in 
vain from high Olympus: 
and he too, who turns the 
plough, 



Multum adeo, rastris glebas qui fraiigit inertes, 
Vimineasquetrahit crates, juvat arva: iieque ilium 
Flava Ceres alto nequicquam spectat Olympo: 
Et qui, proscisso quae suscitat aequore terga, 97 



Adurat.'] Burning applied to cold 
is not merely a poetical expression; 
but we find it made use of also by 
the philosophers. Aristotle says that 
cold is accidentally an active body, 
and is sometimes said to burn and 
warm, not in the same manner as 
heat, but because it condenses or 
constrains the heat by surrounding 

it. UoiviTiKOV dl TO ''^v^^h, aq ^B-et^Titioy , 

if Uq KOCTO. a-Vf>(Jol^VlX.OV, KxBctTTi^ l^gfiTHl 

ar^OTggoV hion yet^ Kott kxiuv Agysrow Koti 

B-i^fialvSlV TO "^V^^OV, y^ uq TO ^i^f4,h , 

»XX» TO <rvyayui, li a»T<7reg»V«»a« to 
^igfAQi. Pliny also applies aduror to 
cold: " Aduri quoque fervore, aut 
*' fiatu frigidiore:" and again; 
" Olei libra, vinique sextario illini- 
" tur cum oleo coctis foliis partibus 
^' qvLSiS frigus adusserit :'' and in 
another place ; '' Leonis adipes cum 
'' rosaceo cutem in facie custodiunt 
" a vitiis, candoremque servant, et 
'^ sanant adust a nivibus .-" and in 
another place he says, " Si vero 
" adusti frigore." 

94. Multum adeo, 5fc.] In this 
passage he recommends the break- 
ing of the clods small, which the 
writers of agriculture call occatio. 
" Occare, id est comminuere, ne sit 
'' gleba," says Varro. *' Pulvera- 
" tionem faciunt, quam vocant rus- 
'^ tici occationera, cum omnis gleba 
" in vineis refringitur, et resolvitur 
" in pulverem," says Columella. 

95. Vimineas cratesJ] Dr. Trapp 
translates rastris rakes, and crates 
harrows : 

Much too he helps his tilth, who with 

the rake 
Breaks the hard lumpish clods, and o'er 

them draws 
The osier harrow. 



Rastrum, I think, always signifies a 
harrow, in Virgil ; who describes it 
as something very heavy, which by 
no means agrees with a rake. In 
this very Georgick we find iniquo 
pondere rastri, and gravibus rastris. 
Crates cannot be harrows, which 
are too solid to be made of osiers or 
twigs of trees, as the hurdles are. 
Thus we have arbutece crates, in this 
Georgick; and crates salignas, in 
the seventh ^neidj and in the 
eleventh. 



( 



Crates et molle feretrum 



Arbuteis texunt virgis, et vimine querno. 

The word is used for any kind of 
basket work ; whence Virgil, in the 
fourth Georgick, applies it to the 
structure of a honey-comb ; crates 
solvere favorum ; and the crates sa- 
lignce, just quoted, are the basket 
work of a shield ; whence the poet 
figuratively uses it to express the 
bones of the breast : 



I 



crudum 



Transadigit costas et crates pectoris 
ensem. 

96. Flava Ceres.'] Ceres is called 
yellow, from the colour of ripe 
corn : thus we have in Homer %xi% 

AlJ^jjTDg. 

97. Et qui, ^c] " Ruaeus," says 
Mr. B — , "^ and after him Mr. Dry- 
" den, apply this passage to what 
" goes before ; but Virgil means it 
*' only of what follows, namely, 
" cross ploughing. What the poet 
'' speaks of here retains the Roman 
•' name to this day in many parts 
" of England, and is called sowing 
*' upon the back, that is, sowing stiff 
" ground after once ploughing. 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



25 



Rursus in obliquum verso perrumpit aratro, 
Exercetque frequens tellurem, atque imperat 
arvis. 99 

Humida solstitia, atque hyemes orate serenas, 



and breaks the riilges oblique- 
ly, which he has already turn- 
ed up, and frequently exercises 
the earth, and commands the 
fields. Pray, ye farmers, for 
moist summers and fair win- 
ters; 



" Now, says Virgil, he that draws 
" a harrow, or a hurdle, over his 
" ground, before he sows it, multum 
*' juvat arva ; for this fills up the 
" chinks, which otherwise would 
*' bury all the corn : but then, says 
*' he, Ceres always looks Hndly upon 
*' him who ploughs his ground cross 
*' again, and then exercises it fre- 
*' quently ; that is, often repeats the 
" labour of ploughing. What made 
" Ruaeus and others mistake this 
*' place is, that they did not observe 
" that Et qui, proscisso, S^c, must 
" be construed qui et permmpit, et 
" exercety et imperat" This obser- 
vation is very ingenious ; but I am 
afraid we shall find it difficult to 
produce an authority for making et 
qui to be the same with qui et. Gri- 
moaldus interprets this passage thus: 
" Neque vero illi minus propitia 
*' futura ilia est, qui, &c." In this 
sense Dryden translates it : 



Nor Ceres from on high 



Regards his labours with a grudging 

eye; 
Nor his, who ploughs across the furrow'd 

grounds, 
And on the back of earth inflicts new 

wounds. 

This way too there seems to be a 
difficulty in the grammatical con- 
struction; for we must place the 
words thus: " Neque flava Ceres 
" spectat ilium ; et ilium qui, &c." 
La Cerda's interpretation seems to 
be most natural: he couples qui 
with the other qui in ver. 94. Thus 
the sense will be: " Ille juvat arva, 
" qui frangit glebas, et ille juvat 
" arva, qui perrumpit, &c." Ru- 
aeus follows La Cerdaj for he in- 
terprets et qui thus: " Valde etiam 



'' prodest ille, qui." Dr. Trapp in- 
terprets it to the same purpose: 
" Et ille etiam juvat arva, qui." 
Neque ilium flava Ceres alto nequic- 
quam spectat Olympo must there- 
fore be understood to be in a paren- 
thesis. 

Proscisso.'] Beroaldus, in his notes 
upon Columella, tells us that pro- 
scindere means the first ploughing of 
the land : " Quod vere semel ara- 
" tum est, a temporis argumento 
" vervactum vocatur, dicitur et pro- 
" scissum, et proscindere appellant, 
" cum primum arant terram." Ser- 
vius gives us the same interpreta- 
tion : " Propria voce usus est, cum 
" enim primo agri arantur, quando 
" duri sunt, proscindi dicuntur; 
" cum iterantur, obfringi ; cum ter- 
" tiantur, litari." 

98. Perrumpit.'] The King's, one 
of the Arundelian, both Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts, Servius, La Cerda, 
and several of the old printed copies, 
have prorumpit. Pierius owns that 
many of the ancient manuscripts 
have perrumpit; but admits pro- 
rumpit, on the authority of the Me- 
dicean manuscript, in which pro- 
rumpit is altered to perrumpit with 
a different ink. The Cambridge ma- 
nuscript has perrumpat ; and in the 
Bodleian manuscript it is perrupit. 

99. Exercet tellurem.'] Thus Ho- 
race; " Paterna rura bobus exercet 
" suis:" and Pliny; "alii tellurem 
" exercent:" and Columella; "fre- 
" quenter solum exercendum est." 

Arvis.] The Bodleian manuscript 
has armis, which no doubt is an 
error of the transcriber. 

100. Humida solstitia, ^-c] Hav- 
ing spoken sufficiently of preparing 



26 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



frr'!^frn%:£rS: Agricola?; hyberno laetissiraa pulvere farra, 

the tield so fruitful, 



the ground, he now begins to speak 
of sowing it ; and advises the 
farmers, in the first place, to pray 
for moist summers and fair winters. 
La Cerda has proved by a great 
number of instances, that the purest 
Latin writers meant only the sum- 
mer solstice by solsiitium, and that 
they called the winter solstice hruma. 
Columella indeed calls the winter 
so\&t\ce'hrumale solstitium: hut solsti- 
tium alone, I believe, was never used, 
but to express the summer solstice. 
We have the word solstitium no 
where else in Virgil, except in the 
seventh Eclogue ; 

Muscosi fontes, et somno mollior herba, 
Et quae vos rara viridis tegit arbutus 

umbra ; 
Solstitium pecori defendite : jam venit 

asstas 
Torrida : jam Ijeto turgent in palmite 

gemmae. 

This is apparently meant of the 
summer solstice. It will not perhaps 
be displeasing to the learned reader, 
if I quote some passages of Pliny, 
which confirm La Cerda's observa- 
tion. In lib. ii. cap. IQ* he says; 
" Sol autem ipse quatuor differen- 
" tias habet, bis eequata nocte diei, 
" vere et auturano, et in centrum 
" incidens terras octavis in partibus 
" arietis ac libra: bis permutatis 
" spatiis, in auctura diei, hruma oc- 
" tava in parte capricorni : noctis 
" vero, solstitio totidem in partibus 
" cancri." In lib. xviii. cap. 25. he 
says; " Cardo temporum quadri- 
** partita anni distinctione constat, 
" per incrementa lucis. Augetur 
'' haec a hruma, et a?quatur noctibus 
" verno sequinoctio diebus xc. horis 
'* tribus. Deinde superat noctes ad 
" solstitium diebus xciii. horis xii. 
" usque ad aequinoctium autumni. 
'^ Et turn aequata die procedit ex eo 



" ad brumam diebus lxxxix. horis 
*' III. Horse nunc in omni accessione 
" aequinoctiales, non cujuscunque 
'' diei significantur: omnesque eae 
" differentiae fiunt in octavis parti- 
'^ bussignorum. Bruma capricorni, 
" ab VIII. calend. Januarii fere: £e- 
" quinoctium vernum, arietis : sol- 
" stitiiim,cancvi: alteruraque sequi- 
" noctium, libra% qui et ipsi dies 
"^ raronon aliquos tempestatum sig- 
'" nificatus habent. Rursus hi car- 
'* dines singulis etiamnum articulis 
" temporum dividuntur, per media 
" omnes dierum spatia. Quoniam 
" inter solstitium et aequinoctium 
" autumni fidiculse occasus autum- 
" num inchoat die xlv. At ab ae- 
" quinoctio eo ad hrumam, vergili- 
" arum matutinus occasus hyemem 
'' die XLiii. Inter hrumam et sequi- 
" noctium die xlv. flatus favonii 
'^ vernum tempus." In cap. 28. of 
the same book he says ; " Solstitium 
" peragi in viii. parte cancri, et 
'' VIII. calendas Julii diximus. Mag- 
'' nus hie anni cardo, magna res 
" mundi. In hoc usque a hruma 
" dies creverunt sex mensibus." 
Servius therefore must be mistaken, 
who takes humida solstitia to mean 
the winter solstice, and imagines 
that the epithet humida is added as 
a distinction from the summer sol- 
stice, and therefore interprets this 
passage thus : " Solstitia ilia quae 
" humida sunt naturaliter, id est hy- 
" berna, O Agricolae, et hyemes se- 
'^ renas orate." 

Pliny accuses our poet of a mis- 
take in this advice, and says it was 
only a luxuriance of his wit : *' Qui 
*^ dixit hyemes serenas optandas, 
'*' non pro arboribus vota fecit. 
'^ Nee per solstitia irabres vitibus 
" conducunt. Hyberno quidem 
" pulvere Isetiores fieri messes, lux- 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



, ^n 



T.aetus ager : nullo tantum se Mysia cultu 

Jactat, et ipsa suas mirantur Gargara messes. 

Quid dicam, jacto qui semine cominus arva 

Insequitur, cumulosque ruit male pinguis arenas ? iiie ridges oTthe barren 



as winfer dust : M vsi:* does not 
boast or an.v lill^Kt' tliat is so 
beneficial, and in such seasons 
even Garganisarimifps its own 
harvests. Why should I speak 
of him, who, as soon as he has 
sown the seed, immediately 
falls upon the field, and levels 
ridges of the barren sand ? 



" uriantis ingenii fertilitate dictum 
*' est." But Virgil is sufficiently 
justified by its being an universally 
received opinion amongst the an- 
cient Roman husbandmen. We are 
told by Macrobius, that in a very 
old book of verses, which is said to 
be the most ancient of all the Latin 
books, the following words are to 
be met with : " Hyberno pulvere, 
'' verno luto, grandia farra Camille 
" metes." From this old saying 
Virgil no doubt derived his advice 
to the farmers, to pray for moist 
summers and fair winters. 

Orater\ It is opiate in one of the 
Arundelian manuscripts, and in La 
Cerda. Pliny seems also to have 
read opiate; for in the passage, 
which I just now quoted, he says, 
" Qui dixit hy ernes serenas optan- 
" das." 

102. Nullo tantiim se Mysia, Sfc.~\ 
It is Moesia in the Bodleian manu- 
script, in Servius, and in several 
old editions; some of the old edi- 
tions have Mesia. The Cambridge 
manuscript has Messia. Fulvius 
Ursinus tells us that the old Colo- 
tian manuscript has Mysia, which 
reading is admitted also by Macro- 
bius. Pierius says it is Mysia in 
the Roman manuscript, and in an- 
other very ancient one. Heinsius and 
several of the best editors have My- 
sia. According to Pliny, Moesia is 
the name of a province joining to 
Pannonia, and running down with 
the Danube to the Euxine sea. But 
Mysia is a part of Asia minor join- 
ing to the Hellespont. In this pro- 
vince were both a mountain and a 
town called Gargarus, famous for 



great plenty of corn. Thus we find 
in Ovid : 

Gargara quot segetes, quot habet Me- 

thymna racemos : 
JEquora quot pisces, fronde teguntur 

aves ; 
Quot caelum Stellas, tot habet tua Roma 

puellas. 

104. Q.uid dicam, <^c.] In this 
beautiful passage, the poet advises 
to break the barren clods immedi- 
ately after the seed is sown ; and 
then to overflow the ground. He 
recommends also the feeding down 
of the young corn, to prevent its 
too great luxuriance : and men- 
tions the draining of a marshy 
soil. 

105. Male pinguis arcnae.] Ruaeus 
says, that male pinguis is not put 
for sierilis in this place, but that it 
signifies male, intempestive, et frus- 
ira compacla et conglobata. He ob- 
serves that arena is often put for 
any sort of earth, as in the fourth 
Georgick it is used for the mud of 
the Nile, which is fat : 

Et viridem ^gyptuni nigra foecuudat 
arena. 

But however it is certain that male 
joined with an adjective has the 
same signification with non. Thus 
in the second j^neid, statio male 
jida carinis is the same as non Jida; 
and in the fourth -^neid, alloquiiur 
male sana sororem is the same as in- 
Sana or 72on sana : therefore male 
pinguis in this passage may well be 
interpreted non pinguis, notwith- 
standing what Ruaeus has said to 
the contrary. 

E 'i 



aiul (hen brings down rills of 
water over it? And when the 
parched field lies gasping with 
dying herbs, behold he draws 
down the water from the brow 
of a hill by descending chan- 
nels: the water, as it falls, 
makes a hoarse murmur along 
the smooth stones, and re- 
freshes the thirsty fields with 
its bubbling streams. Why 
should I speak of him, who. 
lest the heavy ears should 
weigh down tne stem, feeds 
down the luxuriant corn in 
the tender blade, as soon as it 
is even with the furrow? or of 
him who drains the collected 
moisture of the marsh from 
the soaking sand? especially 
in doubtful months, when the 
river has overflowed its banks, 
and covered all the country 
roimd with mad, 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 

Deinde satis fluvium iriducit, rivosque sequen- 
tes ? 106 

Et cum exustus ager morientibus aestuat herbis, 
Ecce supercilio clivosi tramitis undam 
Elicit : ilia cadens raucum per laevia murmur 
Saxa ciet, scatebrisque arentia temperat arva. 
Quid, qui, ne gravidis procumbat culmus aristis, 
Luxuriem segetura tenera depascit in herba ; 
Cum primum sulcos sequant sata.^ quiqufe paludis 
Collectura humorem bibula deducit arena.^ 114 
Praesertim incertis si mensibus amiiis abundans 
Exit, et obducto late tenet omnia limo, 



106. Deinde satis jiuvium, SfcJ^ 
Virgil is thought in these lines to 
have imitated the following passage 
of Homer, in the 21st Iliad: 

'sit 5* Of' ivvtg o;^iTti>^s a^o K^vvfis fit>.a- 
'Aft^vrei xai xyivm vha,r$s poov fiyi/aonun, 

'O^ktvurai, Tfl ^i T uxei xecruSo'fitvo* xt- 

Xei^tjt Ivi zir^oaXUf <p6avu Vi rt xeii rov 
elyevrec. 

So when a peasant to his garden brings 
Soft rills'of water from the bubbling 

springs, 
And calls the floods from high, to bless 

his bow'rs. 
And feed with pregnant streams the 

plants and flow'rs ; 
Soon as he clears whate'er their passage 

stay'd, 
And marks their future current with his 

spade, 
Swift o'er the rolling pebbles, down the 

hills 
Louder and louder purl the falling rills. 
Before him scatt'ring, they prevent his 

pains. 
And shine in mazy wand'rings o'er the 

plains. 

Mr. Pope. 

Rivosque sequentes.'] It is nvosque 



Jluenies in the Roman manuscript, 
according to Pierius. 

109. Elicit.'] Pierius says it is di- 
git in the Roman manuscript. 

112. Luxuriem segetum tenera de- 
pascit in herha.~\ The former pre- 
cept, of breaking the clods, and wa- 
tering them, related to a barren soil. 
Here he speaks of an inconvenience 
attending a rich soil, the too great 
luxuriance of the corn ; and advises 
to feed it down, while it is young. 
He seems to have taken this from 
Theophrastus, who says, that in a 
rich soil the husbandmen both mow 
the young corn, and feed it down, 
to keep it from running too much 
to leaf. 'E» ^e Totlq uyat^xig x^^em 
^goff TO flit (pvXMftotnlv y iTniifiaa-i xxl 
heiKilg^o-i To» criroi. Pliny says the 
same thing: '' Luxuria segetura 
" castigatur dente pecoris in herba 
*' duntaxat." 

113. Quique paludis, Sj-c-l He 
now speaks of draining a marshy 
land. 

115. Si.] In the King's manu- 
script it is cum. 

Incertis mensibus.'] Months where- 
in the weather is uncertain ; as in 
spring and autumn. 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



29 



Unde cavae tepido sudant humore lacunae. 
Nee tamen, haec cum sint hominumque boumque 

labores 
Versando terram experti, nihil improbus anser, 
Strymoniaeque grues, et amaris intuba fibris 120 
Officiunt, aut umbra nocet. Pater ipse colendi 



whence the hollow ditches 
sweat with warm inoiatiire. 
Though ail these constant la- 
bours of men and oxen attend 
the culture of the earth, yet 
these are not all, for the 
wicked goose, and Stry monian 
cranes, and succory with bit- 
ter roots, are injurious, and 
shade is hurtful to the corn. 
Jupiter himself 



118. Nec tarn en f ^c] Having 
spoken of these labours which at- 
tend the culture of the earth, the 
poet adds that these are not all; 
for birds that infest the corn are to 
be scared away, weeds are to be 
rooted up, and trees to be lopped, 
that overshade the field. Hence he 
takes occasion to make a beautiful 
digression concerning the golden 
and silver ages. 

Bourn.'] One of Dr. Mead's ma- 
nuscripts has bovum throughout the 
book. 

119. Anser.l The goose is inju- 
rious wheresoever it comes by pluck- 
ing every thing up by the roots. 
Columella quotes the following 
words to this purpose from Celsus : 
*' Anser neque sine aqua, nec sine 
*' multa herba facile sustinetur, 
" neque utilis est locis consitis, quia 
" quicquid tenerum contingere pot- 
*' est carpit." Palladius has al- 
most the same words, and adds that 
the dung of geese is hurtful : " An- 
" ser sane nec sine herba, nec sine 
" aqua facile sustinetur : locis con- 
" sitis inimicus est, quia sata et 
" morsu laedit et stercore." This 
notion, of the dung of geese burning 
up the grass where they feed, still 
prevails amongstour country people. 
But I have observed that grass will 
grow as well under their dung, as 
under that of other animals. The 
many bare places, which are found 
where geese frequent, are occasioned 
by their drawing up the grass by 
the roots. 



120. Stry monice grues. "l The cranes 
are said to come from Strymon, a 
river of Macedon, on the borders of 
Thrace. 

Amaris intuba Jibrls.'] Intybum, 
or Iniybus, is commonly translated 
Endive : but the plant which Virgil 
means is Succory. Columella, when 
he recommends intubum to be sown 
for geese, tells us, it must be that 
sort which the Greeks call o-gg/j : 
" Sed praecipue genus intubi, quod 
*' <ri^iv Graeci appellant." Diosco- 
rides tells us there are two sorts of 
(rgg<?, one wild, and the other culti- 
vated ; the wild sort is called a-;xg<? 
and succory : Sgg<j uygicc kxi ^f>ii^cs' 
d>v vi ftiv ecypici -zsrU^igy ti xec) zi^apiov 

KecXHfAm. It is called ar/«§<$ no doubt 
from its bitterness : whence Virgil 
describes it to be amaris fibris. It 
is a very common weed about the 
borders of our corn fields ; and may 
be two ways injurious. The spread- 
ing of its roots may destroy the 
corn ; and, as it is a proper food for 
geese, it may invite those destruc- 
tive animals into the fields where it 
grows. La Cerda, in his note on 
this passage, takes occasion to cor- 
rect an error which has crept into 
the editions of Pliny. In lib. viii. 
cap. 27. he says, " Fastidium pur- 

*' gant anates, anseres, caete- 

" raeque aquaticae herba siderite,'* 
That judicious commentator ob- 
serves that we ought to read seride 
instead of siderite. 

121. Umbra nocet.'] That trees 
overshading the corn are injurious 



30 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



woitld have the method of 
tillage not to be easy, and 
first of all commanded the 
fields to be cultivated with 
art, to whet the minds of mor- 
tals with care : and would not 
suffer his reign to rust in sloth. 
Before the reign of Jupiter, 
no husbandmen subdued the 
tielrls: nor was it lawful to 
mark out lands, or distinguish 
them with bounds: all things 
were in common : and the 
earth of her own accord pro- 
duced every thin^ more freely, 
without compulsion. He gave 
a noxious power to horrid 
serpents. 



Haud facilem esse viam voliiit, priniiisque per 

artem 
Movit agros, curis acuens mortalia corda : 
Nee torpere gravi passus sua regna veterno. 
Ante Jovem nulli subigebant arva coloni : 125 
Nee signare quidem, aiit partiri limite campum 
Fas erat. In medium quaerebant; ipsaque tellus 
Omnia liberius nullo poscente ferebat. 
Ille malum virus serpentibus addidit atris, 



to it, is known to every body. The 
poet has said the same thing in his 
tenth Eclogue : 

Nocent el frugibiis umbrae. 

Pater ipse colcndi haud facilem esse 
viam voluit.~\ That the husbandman 
may not repine at so many obsta- 
cles thrown in his way, after all his 
labour, the poet in a beautiful man- 
ner informs him, that Jupiter him- 
self, when he took the government 
of the world upon him, was pleased 
to ordain, that men should meet 
with many difficulties, to excite 
their industry, and prevent their 
minds from rusting v^ith indolence 
and sloth. 

122. Primus per artem movit 
agros. '] Mr. B — has justly ob- 
served, that this does not mean that 
Jupiter invented tillage, but that 
'' he made it necessary to stir the 
" ground, because he filled it with 
'• weeds, and obliged men to find 
" out ways to destroy them." Ser- 
vius seems to think that movit may 
be interpreted y?<s.s /if coli. The poet 
tells us presently afterwards, that 
Ceres was the inventor of husbandry . 
Dryden was not aware of this when 
he wrote, 



Himself invented first the shining share, 
And whetted human industry by care : 
Him?eif did handicrafts and arts or- 
dain. 



Ovid also ascribes the invention of 
agriculture to Ceres, in the fifth 
book of his Metamorphosis: 

Prima Ceres uncoglebam diraovit aratro : 
Prima dedit fruges, aliraentaque raitia 

terris : 
Prima dedit leges : Cereris sumus omnia 

munus. 

125. Ante Jovem nulli subigebant 
arva coloni.'] Thus Ovid : 

Ipsa quoque immunis rastroque intacta,. 

nee ullis 
Saucia vomeribus, per se dabat omnia 

tellus. 

126. Nec.~\ It is ne in the Roman 
manuscript, according to Pierius, 
which is no unelegant reading. 

127. hi medium qucerebant.'] In 
7nediuin signifies in common. Thus 
Seneca, speaking of the golden age, 
says, " Cum in medio jacerent be- 
"neficia naturae promiscue utenda:" 
and after having quoted this pas- 
sage from Virgil, he adds : " Quid 
'"^ hominum illo genere felicius.? In 
" commune rerum natura frueban- 
" tur : sufficiebat ilia, ut parens, in 
^' tutelam omnium." 

Ipsaque tellus omnia liberius nullo 
posceiite ferebat '] Thus Hesiod: 

AvvoftKTyi, zfoXXov ri xai cl^B-atoi. 

129. Mcdumvirii^.'] Malum is not 
a superfluous epithet; for virus is 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



31 



Prsedarique luposjussit,pontumquemoveri: 130 
Mellaque decussit foliis, ianemque removit, 
Et passim rivis currentia vina repressit : 
Ut varias usus meditando extunderet artes 
Paulatim, et sulcis frumenti quaereret herbani : 
Ut silicis venis abstrusum excuderet ignem. 135 
'J'unc alnos primum fluvii sensere cavatas : 
Navita turn stellis numeros et nomina fecit, 
Pleiadas, Hyadas, claramque Lyeaonis Arcton. 



and commanded the wolves, 
to prowl, and the sea to swell : 
and shook the honey irom ihe 
leaves of trees, and concealed 
the Are, and withheld the 
wine, which ran commonly 
before in rivulets : that exi)e- 
rience might gradually strike 
out various arts by frequent 
thinking, and seek the blades 
of corn in furrows: that it 
might strike the hidden fire 
out of the veins of flints. 
Then did the rivers first feel 
the hollowed alders: then did 
the sailor first give numbers 
and names to the stars, the 
Pleiades, the Hyades, and the 
bright bear of Lycaon. 



used in a good as well as a bad 
sense. The Greeks used (pei^^uxov in 
the same manner : thus we find in 
Homer. 

zfoXXa Tf kvy^d. 

See the note on virosa Castorea, 
ver. 58. 

131. Mellaque decussit [01118.1 The 
poets feign, that, in the golden age, 
the honey dropped from leaves of 
trees. Thus Ovid : 

Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella. 

Our poet, speaking, in the fifth 
Eclogue, of the restoration of the 
golden age, says that the oaks shall 
sweat honey : 

Et durae quercus sudabunt roscida ineila. 

It is no uncommon thing to find 
a sweet, glutinous liquor on oak 
leaves, which might give the poets 
room to imagine, that, in the golden 
age, the leaves abounded with honey. 
Ignemqice removit.~\ He did not 
totally take the fire away, but only 
concealed it in the veins of flints. 
Thus Hesiod : K§y%|/g ^g zrv^, 

132. Et passim rivis currentia 
vina repressit.'] It is feigned that 
there were rivers of milk and wine 
in the golden age. Thus Ovid : 

Flumina jam lactis jam fluniina nectaris 
ibant. 



133. Ut.']^ It is et in the Bod- 
leian, and in one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts. Ut is certainly 
right. 

Extunderet.'] Pierius says it is eX' 
cuderet in several ancient manu- 
scripts : but in the Roman, the Me- 
dicean, and other good copies, it is 
extunderet. The King's, one of the 
Arundelian, and one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts have excuderet : in the 
Bodleian it is exfoderet. Extun- 
deret is admitted by most of the 
editors. 

135. C//.] So I find it in the Cam- 
bridge, and one of Dr. Mead's ma- 
nuscripts. Pierius says it is ut in 
all the ancient copies he had seen. 
Servius, Heinsius, some of the old 
printed editions, and Masvicius read 
ut. In most of the modern editions 
it is et. 

136. Almos.'] The alder-tree de- 
lights in moist places, and on the 
banks of rivers. One of these trees 
that was grown hollow with age, 
falh'ng into a river, may be imagined 
to have given the first hint towards 
navigation. 

137. Turn.] In the old Nurenberg 
edition it is dum. 

138. Pleiadas, Hyadas, claramque 
Lycao7iis Arcton.'] This line seems 
to be an imitation of Hesiod : 

nXn'ta^iS S-', 'Txhi rt, ro, re tr^mg 



3^ 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



'llieu was (betaking of wild 
beasts in toils, and the deceiv- 
ing with bird-lime, and the 
encompassing: of great forests 
with dogs discovered. And 
now one seeking the deep 
places lashes the broad river 
with a casting net, and another 
drags his wet lines in the sea. 



Turn laqueis captare feras, et fallere visco 
Inventum, et magnos canibus circumdare sal- 
tus. 140 

Atque alius latum funda jam verberat amnem, 
Alta petens ; pelagoque alius trahit humida lina. 



Or of Homer J 

The Pleiades are seven stars in the 
neck of the bull, not in the tail, as 
we find in Pliny, lib. ii. cap. 41. 
" In Cauda tauri septem, quas ap- 
" pellavere vergilias/' They are fa- 
bled to have been the seven daugh- 
ters of Atlas, king of Mauritania, 
whence they are called also by Vir- 
gil Atlantides. The Latin writers 
generally call them Vergiliae, from 
their rising about the vernal equinox. 
Pleiades is generally thought to be 
derived from xAew, to sail, because 
their rising pointed out the time in 
those days proper to adventure to 
sea. Others derive this name from 
^Mtong, many, because they appear 
in a cluster ,• thus we find Manilius 
call them ddus glomerabile. The 
Hyades are seven stars in the head 
of the bull. This name is derived 
from va, to rain, because they are 
thought to bring rain at their rising 
and setting. The old Romans, 
thinking hyades to be derived from 
«?, a sow, called these stars svcidoB^ 
as we are informed by Cicero : 
" Ejus (Tauri) caput stellis consper- 
" sum est frequentibus : 

" Haec Graeci Stellas: Hyadas vocitare 
** suerunt : 

" A pluendo : vuy enim est pluere. 
" Nostri imperite suculasj quasi a 
" suibus essent, non ab imbribus no- 
" minatae." Pliny makes the same 
observation : " Quod nostri a simili- 



" tudine cognominis Graeci propter 
*' sues impositum arbitrantes, impe- 
" ritia appellavere suculas." Servius 
mentions another etymology, that 
these stars represent the form of the 
Greek letter, T, and are therefore 
called 'TaJgj. It is certain that the 
five principal stand in the shape of 
that letter. Callisto, the daughter 
of Lycaon, was violated by Jupiter, 
and turned into a bear by Juno. 
Jupiter afterwards translated her 
into the constellation called by the 
Greeks "Agjtres, by the Romans Ursa 
major, and by us the Great Bear. 
See the whole fable in the second 
book of Ovid's Metamorphosis. 

139. Laqueis.'] It is laqueo in one 
of Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 

140. Inventum, et magnos,"] In one 
of the Arundelian manuscripts it is 
inventum : magnos. In one of Dr. 
Mead's it is inventum est : magnos. 

Canibus circumdare saltus.'] Thus 
we have in the tenth Eclogue : 



Non me ulla vetabunt 



Frigora Parthenios canibus circumdare 
saltus. 

141. Verberat ajnnetn.] This lash- 
ing the river is a beautiful descrip- 
tion of the manner of throwing the 
casting net 

142. Alta petens.] Servius tells us 
that some make the point after am- 
nem ; and make alta petens to belong 
to the sea-fishing. But in this case, 
I believe Virgil would hardly have 
put the que after pelago : I believe 
the line would rather have run 
thus : 

Altapdens alius pclago trahit humida Una, 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



33 



Tuni ferri rigor, atque argutae lamina serrae ; 
Nam primi cuneis scindebant fissile lignum. 
Tum variae venere artes: labor omnia vicit 145 
Improbus, et duHs urgens in rebus egestas. 
Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terram 
Instituit : cum jam glandes atque arbuta sacrae 



Then llie tempering of steel 
was invented, and the bla<le of 
the grating saw; for in the 
first age they clave the split- 
ting wood with wedges. Then 
various arts were discovered. 
Incessant labour and necessity 
pressing in difficidt affairs 
overcame all things. Ceres 
first taught mankind to plough 
the ground, when mast and 
arbutes began to fail in the sa- 
cred wood. 



Httmida Una.'] La Cerda observes 
that linum is often used for a net. 
Mr. B — says, " The sea-fishing is 
" finely painted; for in this business 
•* the lines are so long, by reason 
" of the depth of the water, that the 
" fisherman's employment seems to 
*' be nothing else but trahit humida 
" lina.'^ Whether Virgil intends, 
by these words, to express the drag- 
net, or fisiiing with the hook, I shall 
not venture to determine. 

144. Primi.'] The King's, the 
Cambridge, and one of the Arun- 
delian manuscripts, have primum: 
hut primi seems more poetical. Thus, 

Tuque O cui privia fremenlem 



Fiidit equum tellus. 

And, 

Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere 

terram 
Instituit. 

Scindebant.] It is Jindebant in the 
Cambridge manuscript: but this 
must be a mistake ; for Jindebant 
fissile lignum js by no means worthy 
of Virgil. 

145. Vicit.] In most of the manu- 
scripts and printed editions it is 
vincit. Pierius says it is vicit in the 
Roman manuscript ; and adds, that 
it is vincit in the Medicean copy -, 
but that there is a mark under the 
11, which shews it is to be expunged. 
It is vicit in one of the Arundelian 
manuscripts: all the rest which I 
have collated have vincit. Heinsius, 
who made use of one of the best 
copies, reads vicit, 

148. Arbuta.] Virgil uses arbii- 



tum for the fruit in this place. In 
the second Georgick he uses arbutus 
for the tree; and in the third, he 
makes arbutum to signify the tree. 
.The Greek writers call the tree K0fz.ec' 
g«5 and the fruit ^vif^xUvMv. Pliny 
calls the fruit unedo. The commen- 
tators observe that Horace uses arbu- 
tus for the fruit. 

Impune tutum per nemus arhntos 
Quaerunt latentes, et thyma. 

But as Horace joins arbutos with thy- 
ma, which cannot mean fruit, I ra- 
ther believe we are to understand 
that he meant the trees themselves. 
Lucretius uses arbuta for the fruit 
in two places ; in one of which we 
find glandes atque arbuta, as in this 
passage of Virgil. The arbute or 
strawberry-tree is common enough 
in our gardens. The fruit has very 
much the appearance of our straw- 
berry, but is larger, and has not the 
seeds on the outside of the pulp, 
like that fruit. It grows plentifully 
in Italy, where the meaner sort of 
people frequently eat the fruit, 
which is but a very sorry diet. 
Hence the poets have supposed the 
people of the first age to have lived 
on acorns and arbutes in the woods, 
before the discovery of corn. Thus 
Lucretius : 

Quod sol, atque imbres dederant, quod 
terra crearat 

Sponte sua, satis id placabat pectora 
donum, 

Glandiferas inter curabant pectora quer- 
cus 

Plerumque, et quae nunc hyberno tem- 
pore cernis 

Arbuta phoeniceo fieri malura colore. 



34 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



anti Dodoiin dcitied (hem sus- 
tenance. Soon was labour 
added lo the com : that nox- 
ious blights should eat the 
stalks, and that the lazy thistle 
should bedreadlul in the corn 
fields: 



Deficerent sylvae, et victuni Dodona negaret. 
Mox et frumentis labor additus : iit mala cul- 
mos 150 

Esset robigo, segnisque horreret in arvis 



And Ovid : 

Arbuteos fcEtus montanaque fraga lege- 
bant. 

149. Deficerent.'] Pierius says, 
that in several very ancient manu- 
scripts it is def Iterant ; but he thinks, 
not without reason, that deficerent 
is better. 

Dodona.] See the note on Chao- 
niam glandem, ver. 8. 

151. Robigo.'] The blight is a 
disease, to which corn is very sub- 
ject: Theophrastus calls it l^vo-iQn. 
Many modern writers take robigo 
to signify smidy which is a putre- 
faction of the ear, and converts it 
into a black powder. But VMrgil 
mentions it as a disease of the stalk : 
nt mala culmos esset robigo ; and 
Pliny tells us it is a disease, not only 
of corn, but of vines: '' Caeleste 
'' frCigum vinearumque raalum,nullo 
" minus noxium est robigo :" and 
the title of a chapter in Columella 
is, Ne robigo vineam vexet. Varro 
also invokes the god Robigus, to 
keep the robigo from corrupting the 
corn and trees : '' Robigum ac Flo- 
'^ ram, quibus propitiis, neque ro- 
'' higo frumenta, atque arbores cor- 
" rumpit, neque non tempestive flo- 
" rent." But smut is a disease to 
which vines are not subject. Pliny 
informs us farther that robigo and 
carbunculus are the same : and his 
description of the carbunculus seems 
plainly enough. to belong to blights. 
He says the vines are burnt thereby 
to a coal; no storm does so much 
damage, for that affects only some 
particular spots ; but they lay waste 
whole countries : " In hoc temporis 
" intervalloressumma vitium agitur^ 



" decretorio uvis sidere illo, quod 
'' caniculum appellavimus. Unde 
" carbunculare dicuntur, ut quodam 
'•' uredinis carbone exustae. Non 
" comparantur huic malo,grandines, 
" procellae, quaeque nunquam an- 
" non 33 intulere caritatera. Agro- 
" rum quippe mala sunt ilia : car- 
'' bunculus autem regionum late pa- 
" tentium." 

SegJiisqiie horreret in arvis car- 
duus.] Thistles are well known to 
be very injurious to the corn. Our 
common thistle not only sends forth 
creeping roots^, which spread every 
way, and sends up suckers on all 
sides : but is propagated also by a 
vast number of seeds, which, by 
means of their winged down, are 
carried to a considerable distance. 
Dr. Woodward has calculated, that 
one thistle seed will produce at the 
first crop twenty-four thousand, and 
consequently five hundred and se- 
venty-six millions of seeds at the 
second crop. What particular spe- 
cies of thistle Virgil meant is not 
certain : perhaps it was the Carduus 
solstitialis, or Saint Barnaby's thistle, 
which, according to Ray, is very fre- 
quent and troublesome in the com 
fields in Italy. " Monspelii in satis 
" nihil abundantius, nee minus fre- 
" quens in Italia, unde increment© 
'^ segetum aliquando officit, et mes- 
" sorum manus pedesque vulnerat." 
The epithet segnis is generally inter- 
preted inutilis, infcecwidus : I have 
ventured to translate it lazy, with 
Mr. B — . I believe Virgil called 
the thistle lazy, because none but a 
lazy husbandman would suffer so 
pernicious a weed to infest his corn. 
Servius interprets horreret, abunda' 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



J35 



Cardiius: intereunt segetes: subit aspera sylva, liiscsTpickiy'v 
Lappaeque tribulique: interque nitentia culta 15 J the shining com 



us room 
wood of burrs 
(nil amongst 



rety ut totum agrum impleret : I take 
it in this place to signify to appear 
terrible or horrid. Virgil uses it, in 
the eleventh ^neid, to express a 
serpent's erecting his scales : 

Saucius at serpens sinuosa volumina 

versat, 
Arrectisque liorret squamis, et sibilat 

ore 
Arduus insurgens. 

In the same book he applies it to 
the scales of a breast-plate : 

Jamque adeo Rutulum thoraca indutus 

ahenis 
Horrchat squamis. 

In the seventh ^neid he applies it 
to rocks : 



Tetricae liorrentcs rupes. 



In the ninth, to the spoils of a lion : 



Horrentisquc leonis 



Exuvias. 



In many places, he uses it to ex- 
press the terrible appearance of the 
spears of an army. In the seventh 
iEneid we find, 

Atraque late 



Horrescit strictis seges ensibus. 

In the tenth, 

Mille rapit densos acie atque Jiorrentibus 
hastis. 

And 



Horrentes Matte Latinos. 



And in the twelfth, 

■ Strictisque seges mucronibus horrct 
Ferrea. 

Thus it may be used with great 
propriety to express a thistle, which 
is so horribly armed all over with 
strong prickles. 



152. Intereunt segetes.] This tran- 
sition to the present tense is very 
beautiful. 

153. LappceJ] Lappa seems to 
have been a general word, to ex- 
press such things as stick to the 
garments of those that pass by. 
We use the word hurr in the same 
manner: though what is properly 
so called is the head of the Bardafia 
major, or burdock. The Lappa of 
Pliny is certainly the of^oce^ivn of 
Theophrastus ; for he has translated 
the very words of this author. The 
passage of Theophrastus is at the 
beginning of the fourteenth chapter 
of the seventh book of his History 
of Plants : "l^iav Ti koci to Tn^l t'kv kytcc^ 

iuru ya^ lyyinteti ra 'V^oe.-^ to osi'S'OS 
» zrgoVai', liHi Ix^cehov, uXX' h zxvtS zjet- 
rof^ivov Koit c-xs^fioyav^r aft ttoc^c^oiov 
iivxt to G-vf>cZx7vov' ctXTTTig Itti tZv yoi.'him 
Kctt pi'vofv. The words of Pliny are, 
'' Notabile et in Lappa quce adhae- 
'^ rescit, quoniam in ipsa flos nas- 
" citur, non evidens, sed intus oc- 
" cultus, et intra se germinat, velut 
" animalia quae in se pariunt." The 
uirec^ivvi of the Greeks is not our 
burdock, but a little herb, with a 
burry seed, which is very common 
in our hedges, and is called cleavers, 
clivers, or goose grass. Theophras- 
tus, in the eighth chapter of the 
same book, mentions etTret^ivvi amongst 
those herbs, which lie on the ground 
unless they are supported ; which 
agrees with the cleavers, but not 
with the burdock: "Evix 21 zin^ioiTi- 
XoKxvXec, Kx^XTTi^ ii -zriTvivYi, xsci j5 xttoc- 
^ivn, x.cii UTjrXag uv o KccvXog XSTrrog, y.ctl 

ra.vTec co(; Irri to srav h uXMk;. Dios- 
corides is so particular in his de- 

F 2 ^ 



36 



R VIRGILII MARONIS 



;jfid"oatfp'fevar'feuuu,kst Infelix loliuiii, ct steriles dominantur avense. 

you pursue the ground dili- r^ -, • . • i • 

gently with harrows, QuoQ nisi et assiQuis terrain insectabere rastris. 



scription of the arret^m, that he leaves 
no room to doubt of its being the 
cleavers. He says it has many 
small, square, rough branches, and 
leaves placed in whorls at the joints, 
as in madder. The flowers are 
white: the seeds hard, white, round, 
hollow in the middle, like a navel. 
The herb sticks to one's clothes, 
and the shepherds make use of it 
to get hairs out of their milk: 

ATTX^lVy), 01 2s UfiTTiXoXXpTrOV, CI 21 OfA- 

(petXoxxpTtov, 01 ^£ (ptXciv^paxov Keih.S(riv, 

01 Oi tZ,OV. KXcOVii KTOAAo/, fAlX^Ot, TSTgCf" 

ymoi, r^x^iTg. (pixXa dl Ix. dioi?-^f,cecTeg 

XVKXoTi^Zg ■zn^lXilfiSVOt, COTTTig TO, T8 

i^vS'^oooiva. av3-jj Mvxd. cr'^s^f^ec cxXvi^ov, 
Agyxov, <^^oyyvXov, vttokoiXov, Ik fAStra cog 
of^CpccKog. •zsr^oT-z^xirxi 21 Kxi ifAecrioig vi 
•srooi. ^QavToii di uvr^ xeti ol -sroi^mg 
avTt yiB-fiS Itt] rS yoiXxxTog, TF^og exXn-^iy 
rm Iv uvTM r^ix,av. Pliny says al- 
most the same words concerning 
the aparine : " x^parinen aliqui om- 
*^ phalocarpon, alii philanthropon 
" vocant, ramosam, hirsutam, qui- 
" nis senisve in orbem circa ramos 
*' foliis per intervalla ; semen rotun- 
" dum, durum, concavum,subdulce. 
^' Nascitur in frumentario agro, aut 
** hortis pratisve, asperitate etiam 
'^ vestium tenaci." Hence it ap- 
pears, either that Pliny has treated 
of the same plant, under the different 
names of Lappa and Aparine; or 
else that he misunderstood Theo- 
phrastus, and applied what he had 
said of the aparine to the lappa. 
We find in the last quotation from 
Pliny, that the Aparine was a weed 
amongst their corn, so that perhaps 
the Lappa of Virgil was our 
cleavers. 

Tribuli.'] The trihulus or land 
caltrop is an herb with a prickly 
fruit, which grows commonly in 
Italy, and other warm countries. It 



is the name also of an instrument 
used in war, to annoy the horse. 
This instrument has rgzig (ioXcig, three 
spikes, whence the Greek name 
r^iQoXog is derived. 

This fiction of the poets, that Ju- 
piter caused the earth to produce 
these prickly weeds, seems to have 
been borrowed from Moses. We are 
told in the third chapter of Genesis, 
that when God cursed the earth, he 
said it should bring forth thorns and 
thistles, as it is in our translation. 
The LXX have uxcivBxg kcci rpiQoXag. 
The Hebrew words seem to signify 
any prickly, troublesome weeds: 
for ^Ip, which is rendered a thorn, 
is derived from the verb ^lp, which 
signifies to viake uneasy; and 'I'm, 
which is rendered a thistle, or rg/- 
ZoXog, is derived from 1^1, freedom, 
because it grows freely in unculti- 
vated places. 

1 54. Infelix lolium, et steriles do- 
minantur aven£E.'] Virgil has this 
very line in his fifth Eclogue : 

Grandia saepe quibus mandavimus hordea 

sulcis 
Infelix lolium, et steriles dominantur 

avenae. 

Lolium or Darnel is a common weed 
in our corn fields. The wild oats are 
no less frequent in many places. 
They are not the common oats de- 
generated by growing wild, but a 
quite different species : the chaff of 
them is hairy, and the seed is small, 
like that of grass. It was the ge- 
neral opinion of the ancients that 
wheat and barley degenerated into 
these weeds : but they are specifi- 
cally different, and rise from their 
own seeds. The word dominantur is 
very proper; for these weeds grow 
so tall, that they overtop the corn. 

155. Quod nisi et assiduis, Sfc.~\ 
Here the poet concludes with a par- 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



37 



Et sonitu terrebis aves, et ruris opaci 156 

Falce premes umbras, votisque vocaveris im- 

brem: 
Heu magnum alterius frustra spectabis acervum; 
Concussaque famem in sylvis solabere quercu. 
Dicendum et quae sint duris agrestibus arma: 160 
Queis sine nee potuere seri nee surgere messes. 
Vomis, et inflexi priraum grave robur aratri^ 
Tardaque Eleusinae matris volventia plaustra, 
Tribulaque, traheaeque, et iniquo pondere rastri : 



and make a noise to scare the 
birds, and restrain the over- 
shading boughs with your 
sickle, and call down the 
showers with prayer: alas, 
you shall behold another's 
large heap in vain, and relieve 
your hunger in the woods 
with shaking an oak. 1 must 
also mention the arms which 
belong to the laborious hus- 
bandmen : without which the 
corn can neither be sown, nor 
spring up. In the ftrst place 
the snare, and the heavy tim- 
ber of the crooked plough, 
and the slow rolling carts of 
Eleusinian Ceres, and thresh- 
ing instruments, and sleds and 
harrows of unwieldy weight : 



ticular injunction to avoid the 
plagues which he mentioned about 
the beginning of this article. He 
mentions the diligent harrowing, to 
destroy the weeds, because succory 
is injurious, amaris intuba fihris offi' 
ciunt. Pierius says, that in the Me- 
dicean manuscript, instead of terram 
inseclahere raslris, it is herham in- 
sectabere rasiris : the same reading 
is in the Bodleian manuscript. He 
says the birds are to be scared away, 
because geese and cranes are trou- 
blesome : improbus anser Strymoni- 
ceque grues officiunt. He advises to 
restrain the overshading boughs, 
because shade is hurtful to the corn, 
umbra nocet. He puts the husband- 
man in mind of praying for showers, 
because they depend on the will of 
the gods. He had spoken before of 
praying for seasonable weather. 



Humida solstitia 

Serenas 
Agricolse. 



atque hyemes orate 



158. Spectabis.] It is exspectabis 
in the Medicean manuscript, accord- 
ing to Pierius. It is the same in 
the Bodleian manuscript. 

159. Concussa.'] It is excussa in 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 

160. Dicendum, c^c] Here the 
poet begins to describe the various 
instruments, with which a husband- 
man ought to be provided. 



162. Robur.'\ Robur is the name 
of a particular sort of oak : but it is 
used also for any solid timber. Thus 
we find it, in the twelfth jEneid, 
applied to the wood of a wild olive- 
tree: 

Forte sacer Fauni foliis oleaster amaris 

Hie steterat 

Viribus baud ullis valuit discludere 

morsus 
Roloris JEneas. 

In this place I take it to mean the 
beam, or solid body of the plough. 

163. Tardaqiie Eleusince matris 
volventia plaustra."^ This line beau- 
tifully describes the slow motion of 
the cart. Ceres is called Eleusina 
mater J from Eleusis, an Athenian 
town, where Ceres was hospitably 
received by Celeus, and in return, 
taught his people the art of hus- 
bandry. The Eleusinians, in ho- 
nour of this goddess, instituted the 
Eleusinian feasts, which were very 
famous. It was death to disclose 
any of their mysteries. In the 
feasts of Ceres at Rome, her statue 
was carried about in a cart or 
waggon. 

164. Tribula.] The tribulum or 
tribula was an instrument used by 
the ancients to thresh their corn. 
It was a plank set with stones, or 
pieces of iron, with a weight laid 
upon it, and so was drawn over the 



38 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



•idd to these the mean osier 
turniture of Celeus, arbute 
hurdles, and the mystic fan of 
Bacchus : all which you must 
carefully provide long before- 
hand, if you have a due regard 
for divine husbandry, in the 
first place the elm is forcibly 
bent in the woods into a 
plough-tail, and receives the 
form of the crooked plough. 
To the end of this are joined 
a beam eight feet in length, 
two earth boards, and share- 
beams, with a doable back. 



Virgea praeterea Celei, vilisque supellex, 165. 
Arbutese crates, et mystica vannus lacchi : 
Omnia quae multo ante memor provisa repones, 
Si te digna manet divini gloria ruris. 
Continuo in sylvis magna vi flexa domatur 
In burim, et curvi formam accipit ulmus aratri. 
Huic a stirpe pedes temo protentus in octo, 171 
Binas aures, duplici aptantur dentalia dorso. 



corn by oxen. Varro has given us 
the description of it : "Id fit e ta- 
" bula lapidibus, aut ferro asperata, 
" quo imposito auriga, aut pondere 
" grandi, trahitur jumentis junctis, 
" ut discutiat e spica grana." Tri- 
huhim is derived from r^iQa, to thresh. 
Hence we may see why the first 
syllable of tribulum is long; but 
that of tribulus short. I mentioned, 
in the note on trihulU ver. 153, that 
tribulus, the name of a plant, and of 
an instrument used in war, is so 
called from its having rge?? fioXug, 
three spikes. Now the compounds 
of r^ug have the first syllable short ; 
as rgiTFovq, of which we have frequent 
instances in Homer. I shall men- 
tion only one, in the twenty-third 
Iliad : 

But the first syllable of rg/S** is long; 
of which we have an instance a few 
lines after, in the same Iliad : 

Trahece.] The irahea or traha is 
a carriage without wheels. It was 
used to beat out the corn, as well as 
the tribulum. This appears from Co- 
lumella: '^ At si corapetit, ut in area 
'^ teratur frumentum, nihil dubium 
" est, quin equis melius, quam bubus 
'•' ea res conficiatur, et si pauca juga 
" sunt, adjicere tribulam et traham 
'' possis, quae res utraque culmos fa- 
" cillihie comminuit." 



Iniquo pondere rastri.'] See the 
note on ver. gs. 

165. Celei.] Celeus was the fa- 
ther of Trjptolemus, whom Ceres 
instructed in husbandry. 

166. Arbutece crates.'] See the 
notes on ver. ^5 and 148. 

Mystica vannus lacchi.'] The fan 
is an instrument used to cleanse the 
corn: thus Columella; " Ipsae au- 
"tem spicaB melius fustibus tunduii- 
" tur, vannisque expurgantur.'' It is 
called mystica, because it Was used 
in the mysteries of Bacchus. lac- 
chus was a name of Bacchus seldom 
made use of, but on solemn and 
sacred occasions. 

169. Continuo in sylvis, S^c] Here 
the poet gives us a description of the 
plough, in which we find that the 
custom was to bend an elm, as it 
grew, into the crooked form of the 
buris, or plough-tail, to which the 
beam, the earth-boards, and the 
share-beam were fastened. 

171. Temo.] This is the beam, or 
pole, which goes between the oxen, 
and to which they are yoked. He- 
siod calls it WoZoivi, which is derived 
from <Vo?, a mast, and /3ov$, an ox. 
He says it is made either of bay or 
elm : 

Aa(p»}is y vt ifliXiVis ocKiuTccloi ircSaTiti. 

172. Aures.] These must be the 
earth-boards, which being placed on 
each side of the share-beam, serve 
to make the furrows wider, and the 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



39 



CseditLir et tilia ante jugo levis, altaque fagus, itnge^ol^lJ^n'^nn^tyoK 

, . and the tall beech, and the 

Stivaque, quas currus a tergo torqueat imos : l^^\^^- ^'"^'l f^ ^ouom of 



ridjres higher. Palladius tells us 
that some ploughs had earth-boards, 
and others not. " Aratra siiuplicia, 
" vel si plana regiopermittitj aurita, 
'' quibus possint contra stationes hu- 
' ' moris hyberni, sata celsiore sulco 
" attolli." 

Duplici dentalia dorso.'] Dentale 
is the share-beam, a piece of wood 
to which the share is fixed. But why 
they are said to have a double back 
seems not to be very clear. The com - 
mentators generally agree that by 
double is meant hroad, and quote 
some authorities for this interpreta- 
tion. Servius indeed tells us, that 
most of the plough-shares in Italy 
have a wing on each side; " cujus 
" utrumque eminet latus : nam fere 
" hujusmodi sunt omnes vomeres in 
'• Italia." On this account Virgil 
might have called the share double, 
but why the board should be said to 
have a double back, I do not readily 
comprehend. A passage in Hesiod 
seems to be of some use in removing 
this difficulty. It is agreed on all 
hands, that Virgil had Hesiod's 
plough before him when he made 
this description. The Greek poet 
speaking of the yyn?, which all in- 
terpret dentale J says it is fastened 
to the plough-tail, and at the same 
time nailed to the pole : 

E<V o'iKov, :ia.T o'os; ^i^'^f^ivc; »j axr cc^a^ccv, 
Tofiifoiiriv TZiy^dffoc? -zs-^offa^ri^i-Tat Wo^oni. 

Now if we suppose the dentale or 
share-beam to have been made with 
two legs, one of which was fastened 
to the bottom of the tail, and the 
other nailed to the beam, which 
would make all three hold faster to- 
gether; it will easily appear, that 



Virgil means these two legs by his 
duplex dorsum. Hesiod speaks of 
two sorts of ploughs, one with the 
plough-tail and share-beam of one 
piece, and another, where they are 
joined. He advises to have both 
these in readiness, that if one should 
break, the other may be at hand. 

Aoik Ti B-iffS-ai a^or^a, ^evfitrd/itvos xetra 

OIKOV, 

Avroyvov, xut ■zs'tixtov. l-rt) ziroXo Xu/ov 

Urus. 
Ei ^ 'ire^ov y a^aigp 'irt^ev y Wt finffi 

(hcLXeio. 

173. Altaque fagiis, siivaquer] 
Sliva is the plough- staff, which with 
us is generally fixed to the share- 
beam, in the same manner as the 
buj'is, or tail, so that we have two 
tails or handles to our ploughs : but 
sometimes it is a loose staff, with a 
hook at the end, with which the 
ploughman takes hold of the back 
part of the plough, to turn it. 

The grammatical construction of 
this passage does not seem very 
clear. Cceditur is made to agree 
with tiliay fagus, and stiva. We 
may say tilia cceditur, and fagus 
cceditur ; but to say at the same time 
stiva cceditur seems to be absurd: 
for this makes the staff a tree, by 
coupling it with lime and beech. 
Besides que and quce coming close 
together offend the ear, and I be- 
lieve there is not another instance of 
their coming thus together any 
where in Virgil. I believe instead 
of siivaque we ought to read stivoe ; 
which will make the sense clearer, 
and the verse better : 

Caedilur et tilia ante jugo levis, altaque 

fagus 
Stivae, quae currus a tergo torqueat imos. 

" The light lime-tree also is cut 
'^ down beforehand for the yoke. 



40 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and the wood 
chimneys, to 
the smoke. 



bi'seaso^ned'by ^t suspensa focis explorat robora fumus. 175 



" and the tall beech for the staff, to 
" tuFn the bottom of the carriage 
" behind/' The Bodleian manu- 
script has stiva que currus. 

CurrusJ] " I do not know whe- 
" ther any edition justifies the alter- 
*' ation I have made in this line, of 
'^ currus to cursus. The reason of 
*' my doing it is because cursus is in- 
*' telligible, and explains the use of 
'^ the handle, or plough staflP; cursus 
'' torqueat imos^ the handle serves to 
^' keep the plough up, which other- 
" wise would run down too deep in 
" the ground. Mr. Dryden finding 
"this passage difficult to explain, 
" has left it quite out of his transla- 
" tion. All that the commentators 
" have said concerning currus in 
" this place is very perplext." Mr. 
B— . 

The poet is thought by some to 
mean a wheel-plough, by the word 
currus which is derived from curro, 
to run; and Servius informs us, that 
in Virgil's country, the ploughs run 
upon wheels : we have wheel-ploughs 
in many parts of England. 

175. Explorat.'] The King's, the 
Bodleian, and one of the Arunde- 
lian manuscripts, have exploret. 
Servius, La Cerda, Schrevelius, and 
several printed editions, have the 
same reading. Pierius seems willing 
to admit exploret: though at the 
same time he says it is explorat in 
the Roman manuscript, and in the 
very ancient oblong one. Heinsius 
and Ruaeus read explorat. It is the 
same in the other Arundelian, the 
Cambridge, and both Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts. 

I have here inserted the figure of 
a modern Italian plough, which 
seems to differ but little from that 
which Virgil has described. It seems 
to have no sliva, distinct from the 
buris ; and it has a coulter, which 



Virgil does not mention. And in- 
deed Pliny, who describes the coul- 
ter, seems to speak as if it was not 
in all ploughs. " Vomerum plura 
" genera. Culter vocatur, praeden- 
*^ sam, prius quam proscindatur, 
" terram secans, futurisque sulcis 
" vestigiapraescribensincisuris,quas 
" resupinus in arando mordeat vo- 
« mer." 

After my notes on this passage 
were printed, I had the favour of a 
letter from Sir Daniel Molyneux, 
Bart, dated from Rome, July 27, 
1737, with a drawing and descrip- 
tion of the plough which is now 
used about Mantua and Venice. 
There is a plough used in many 
parts of England, which differs very 
little from this ; but yet, I believe, 
it will be no small satisfaction to my 
readers, to find an exact account of 
the very plough, now employed in 
cultivating the lands in Virgil's own 
country. 

The two timbers marked A are 
each made of one piece of wood, 
and are fastened together with three 
wooden pins at B. 

C, C, are two transverse pieces of 
wood, which serve to hold the han- 
dles together at the back. 

D is a piece of wood fastened to 
the left handle, or Si?iistrella, at E, 
and to the beam F. 

F is the beam, or Pertica, which 
is fastened to the left handle, at G. 

H is the plough-share, into which 
the Dentale, or share-beam, seems 
to be inserted. 

I is the coulter, being a piece of 
iron, square in the body, which is 
fixed in the beam, and bending in 
the lower part, and having an edge, 
to cut the weeds. 

L is an iron chain, fastened at one 
end to the plough-pillow, or Mesolo 
N; and, at the other, to the beam 



GEORG. LIB. I 



41 



Possum niulta tibi vcterum praecepta referrc 
Ni refugis, tenuesque piget cognoscere curas. 
Area cum primis ingenti aequanda cylindro, 



I can rocilc to you many pre- 
cepts of the ancients, nnless 
you decline tlien», and are 
loth to be informed of small 
things. In tiie first place, the 
floor is to be smoothed with a 
huge rolling stone, 



by an iron hammer M ; the handle 
of which serves for a pin, and the 
more forward you place the ham- 
mer, the deeper the share goes into 
the ground. 

O, are two pieces of wood fast- 
ened to the pillow, which serve to 
keep the beam in the middle. 

P is the pole, or Timonzella, to 
which the oxen are yoked, and is of 
no certain length. 

Q, R, with pricked lines is a strong 
plank, which is fastened to D, and 
to the left handle. This being placed 
sloping serves to turn up the earth, 
and make the furrow wider. This 
part therefore is the earth-board, or 
auris, of Virgil, of which he says 
there should be two: but in this 
plough there seems to be but one. 

1 do not question, but that the 
Mantuan plough was in Virgil's 
time more simple than that here de- 
scribed ; but let us compare a little 
the poet's description with the figure 
now before us. Let the left handle 
A A, be supposed to be the Buris, 
the right handle A A, to be the Sliva, 
and A E, A B, to be the two Denta- 
lia. Here then we see the crooked 
Buris, to form which an elm was 
bent as it grew. Near the bottom 
of this, hide a siirpe, we see the pole 
is inserted, which probably was con- 
tinued to the length of eight feet, 
and had the oxen yoked to it, with- 
out the intervention of the Timon- 
zella. Thus the plough wanted the 
advantage of having the share go 
lighter or deeper, which may be a 
modern improvement. The two 
handles may very well be supposed 
to be meant by the double back, to 
which the two share beams are join- 



ed. Upon this supposition we must 
make some alteration in interpreting 
the two following verses : 

Huic a stirpe pedes temo protentus in 

octo: 
Binae aures, duplici aptantur dentalia 

dorso. 

" From the bottom of this a beam 
" is protended, eight feet in length : 
" and two earth -boards, and share- 
'^ beams are fitted to the double 
" back." The wheels were probably 
fixed immediately to the beam, and 
shew the propriety of the word 
currus, as is already observed in the 
note on ver. 174. 

1 76. Possum mulia tibi, ^c] After 
the mention of the instruments of 
agriculture, he gives instructions 
concerning the making of the floor. 

Veterum proeceptaf] He means 
Cato and Varro, who wrote before 
him ; and from whom he has taken 
the directions relating to the floor. 

178. Area.'^ Cato directs the floor 
to be made in the following man- 
ner: dig the earth small, and 
sprinkle it well with lees of oil, that 
it may be well soaked. Beat it to 
powder, and smooth it with a roll- 
ing stone or a rammer. When it is 
smooth, the ants will not be trou- 
blesome, and when it rains it will 
not grow muddy : " Aream ubi fru- 
''mentum teratur sic facito: Con- 
'' fodiatur minute terra, amurca 
'' bene conspergatur, ut combibat 
" quam plurimum. Comminuito 
'' terram, et cylindro aut pavicula 
*' coaequato. Ubi coaequata erit, 
" neque formicae molestas erunt, et 
" cum pluerit lutum non erit." 
Varro is more large in his descrip- 
tion of the floor j and mentions not 

G 



42 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and to be wrought with the 
hand, and consolidated with 
binding chalk : to keep weeds 
from growing up, and to pre- 
serve It from growing dusty 
and chapping. Then various 
pjagnesmock your hopes: the 
little mouse often has built its 
house under the ground, and 
made its granaries: or the 
blind moles have digged their 
chambers : the toad also is 
found in hollow places, and 
other vermin, which the earth 
produces in abundance: and 
the weave! destroys the great 
heap of corn, and the ant also, 
which is afraid of a needj' old 
age. 



Et vertenda manu, et creta solidanda tenaci : 
Ne subeant herbae, neu pulvere victa fatiscat. 180 
Turn variae illudunt pestes : saepe exiguus mus 
Sub terris posuitque domos, atque horrea fecit : 
Aut oculis capti fodere cubilia talpae : 
Inventusque cavis bufo, et quae plurima terrae 
Monstra ferunt : populatque ingentem farris 
acervum 185 

Curculio, atque inopi metuens formica senectae. 



only the ants, but mice and moles : 
'' Aream esse oportet — solida terra 
" pavitam, maxime si est argilla, ne 
" aestu, paeminosa, in rimis ejus 
'^ grana oblitescant, et recipiant 
" aquam, et ostia aperiant muribus 
" ac formicis. Itaque amurca solent 
" perfundere : ea enim herbarum 
" est iniraica et formicarum : et tal- 
" parum venenum." 

Cum primis ingenti cequanda.'] 
Some copies have cum primum, others 
tumprimum. Aulas Gellius observes 
that cum primis is the same with in 
primis. " Apprime crebrius est : cum 
" prime rarius : traductumque ex 
" eo est, quod cum primis dicebant, 
" pro eo quod est in primis." Those 
who read primum, insert est either 
after primum or ingenti. Pierius 
says that in the Medicean, and most 
of the ancient copies, it is cum primis 
ingenti cequanda without est. 

Cylindro.'] The Cylinder seems to 
have been a stone, not unlike that 
with which we roll our gardens. 
Palladius speaks of a fragment of a 
pillar being used for a roller. '' Ju- 
" nio mense area paranda est ad tri- 
" turam, cujus primo terra radatur, 
" delude effossa leviter mistis paleis, 
'^ et amurca aequatur insulsa. Quae 
" res a muribus et formicis frumenta 
" defendit. Tunc premenda est ro- 
" tundo lapide, vcl columnse quo- 



'^ cunque fragmento, cujus volutatio 
" possit ejus spatia solidare." 

18]. Illudunt ~\ Pierius says it is 
illudant in the Roman and several 
other ancient manuscripts. One of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts has illudant: 
it is the same in the editions of 
Heinsius and Paul Stephens. Ser- 
vius and most of the editors admit 
illudunt. 

Exiguus mus.] Quintilian justly ob- 
serves, that not only the diminishing 
epithet, but the ending of the verse 
with one syllable, beautifully ex- 
presses the littleness of the animal : 
" Risiraus, et merito, nuper poetam 
'^ qui dixerat, 

" Proetextam in cista mures rosere Camilli. 

'' At Virgilii miramur illud, 

" Soepe exiguus mus. 

" Nam epitheton exiguus, aptum 
" proprium effecit ne plus expec- 
" taremus, et casus singularis magis 
'^ decuit, et clausula ipsa unius syl- 
" labse non usitata, addit gratiara." 

183. Oculis capti ialpcB.'] The 
poet speaks according to the vulgar 
opinion, when he says the moles are 
blind: but it is certain that they 
have eyes, though they are small 
ones, 

186. Curculio.] Some read Cur- 
gulio: others Gurgulio. 



GEORG. LIB. I. 43 

Contemplator item, cum se nux plurima sylvis observe aiso when the wainut- 



187- Contemplator item, Sfc] In 
this passage he shews the husband- 
man how he may form a judgment 
of his future harvest. 

Nux.'] The commentators seem 
to be unanimous in rendering mix 
the almond-tree : but I cannot dis- 
cover upon what grounds. I believe 
?iux has never been used, without 
some epithet, to express an almond- 
iree. That it is used for a walnut- 
tree, is plain from Ovid's poem de 
Nuce. Virgil says in the second 
Georgick, that the nux is ingrafted 
on the arbutus : 

Inseritur vero ex fcetu nucis arbutus 
horrida. 

That this is to be understood of the 
walnut, appears from Palladius : 

Arbuteas frondes vastae nucis occupat 

umbra 
Pomaque sub duplici cortice tuta refert, 

Palladius could not mean the al- 
mond, when he spoke of a great 
shade, which is very applicable to 
the walnut. In another place he 
has a chapter de Nuce Juglande, 
where he says expressly, that the 
walnut is ingrafted on the arbute : 
'' Inseritur, ut plerique asserunt, 
*^ menseFebruario,in Arbuto." We 
have nux but once more in all Virgil : 
it is in the eighth Eclogue : 

Mopse novas incide faces: tibi ducitur 
uxor. 

Sparge marite nuces ; tibi deserit Hes- 
perus OEtam. 



-Prepare the lights. 



O Mopsus, and perform the bridal rites. 

Scatter thy nuts among the scrambling 
boys: 

Thine is the night : and thine the nup- 
tial joys. 

Dry den. 

The ancient custom of throwing 
nuts amongst the boys at weddings, 



is well known. We learn from 
Pliny that these nuts were walnuts ; 
and that they were used in the nup- 
tial ceremonies, because the fruit is 
so well defended with a thick rind, 
and a woody shell : " Ab his locum 
" amplitudine vindicaverunt, quae 
" cessere autoritati, nuces juglandes, 
" quanquam et ipsae nuptialium 
" Fescenniorum comites, multum 
" pineis minores unlversitate, eae- 
" demque portione ampliores nu- 
" cleo. Necnon et honor his na- 
'' turae peculiaris, gemino pro tectis 
" operimento, pulvinati primum ca- 
" lycis,, raox lignei putaminis. Quae 
'' causa eas nuptiis fecit religiosas, 
" tot modis fcetu munito, quod est 
" verisimilius, quam quia cadendo 
" tripudium sonumve faciant." 

Plurima.] Servius interprets this 
word longa, and thinks it is designed 
to express the long shape of the al- 
mond. Dr. Trapp understands it to 
mean the tallness of the tree : 

Observe too, when in woods the almond 

tall 
Blossoms with flow'rs and bends its 

smelling boughs. 

I take it to signify very much, or 
plentifully: in which sense it is to 
be understood in the following pas- 
sage of the second Georgick ; 

Haec eadem argenti rivos, aerisque me- 

talla 
Ostendit venis, atque aura plurbna fluxit. 

Here Ruseus interprets the three 
last words aura multum ahundavit : 
and Dr. Trapp translates these 
lines; 

The same blest region veins of silver 

shews. 
Rivers of brass; and flows in copious gold. 

A few lines after we find 

Indicio est, tractu surgens oleaster codem 
Plurimus. 
g2 



44 



r. VIRGILII MARONIS 



shall put on its bloom plenti- 
fully in the woods, and bend 
(Josvn its strong smelling 
branches: if it abounds in 
tiuit, yon will have a like 
quantity of corn, and a great 
threshing with much heat. 
But if it abounds with a lux- 
iiriant shade of leaves, in vain 
shall your fluor thresh ihe 
corn, which abounds with no- 
thing but chaff. 1 have seen 
some medicate their seeds be- 
fore they sow ; and steep them 
in nitre and black lees of oil, 
to cause a fuller produce in 
the deceitful pods. And though 
they have been moistened over 
a gentle fire to quicken them, 
and long tried, and examined 
with much labour. 



Induet in florem, et ramos curvabit olentes : 
Si superant foetus, pariter frumenta sequentur, 
Magnaque cum magno veniet tritura calore. 190 
At si luxuria foliorum exuberat umbra, 
Nequicquam pingues palea teret area culmos. 
Semina vidi equidem multos medicare serentes, 
Et nitro prius, et nigra perfundere amurca, 
Grandior ut foetus siliquis fallacibus esset. 195 
Et quamvis igni exiguo properata maderent, 
Vidi lecta diu, et multo spectata labore 



Dr. Trapp does not translate oleaster 
•plurimus the wild olive tall, but 

This the wild olives shew, when tMck 

they rise 
On the same mould. 

I believe May is the only translator, 
who has given plurima the true 
sense, in the passage under our con- 
sideration : 

when nut-trees fully 



Consider thou 
bloom. 



188. Ramos olentes.'] The strong 
smell of the branches is more appli- 
cable to the walnut than to the al- 
mond. The very shade of the wal- 
nut was thought by the ancients to 
be injurious to the head. Pliny 
says in lib. xvii. cap. 12. " Jam 
" quaedam umbrarum proprietas, 
** Juglandium gravis et noxia, etiam 
*' capiti humano, omnibusque juxta 
'' satis." And in lib. xxiii. cap. 8. 
he says, '' Arborum ipsarum folio- 
" rumque vires in cerebrum pene- 
'' trant." 

191. Exuberat.'] In one of the 
Arundeiian and one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts, it is exsuperat. But 
this must be an error of the tran- 
scribers ; for the second syllable in 
exuperat is short ; as in the second 
^Eneid : 

Sanguineae exuperant undas. 



192. Nequicquam.] Servius, and 
after him La Cerda, interprets ne- 
quicquam pingues to be the same as 
non pingues : which I believe is not 
the sense in this place. Nequicquam 
frequently occurs in Virgil : but sel- 
dom is used for tioI. See the note 
on ver. 403. 

Palea.] Some copies have palece : 
but palea is generally received. 

193. Semina vidi equidem, <^c.] In 
this place he adds a precept relating 
to beans : that they should be picked 
every year, and only the largest 
sown; without which care all the 
artful preparations made by some 
husbandmen is in vain. 

I have interpreted this passage 
to relate to beans, on the authority 
of Pliny, who says, " Virgilius ni- 
" tro et amurca perfundi jubet fa- 
" bam : sic etiara grandescere pro- 
" mittit." 

194'. Perjundere.] Schrevelius reads 
prqfundere. 

195. Siliquis fallacibus.l The men- 
tion of pods shews that the poet 
speaks of pulse. The pods are called 
deceitful, because they often grow 
to a sufficient size, when upon ex- 
amination they prove almost empty. 

197- Vidi lecta diu.] Columella 
reads vidi ego lecta diu. One of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts has vidi lecta 
manu. 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



45 



Degenerare tamen ; ni vis humana quotannis 
Maxima quaeque manu legeret. Sic omnia fatis 
In pejus ruere, ac retro sublapsa referri : 200 
Non aliter, quam qui adverso vix flumine lembum 
Remigiis subigit ; si brachia forte remisit, 
Atque ilium in praeceps prono rapit alveus amni. 
Praeterea tarn sunt Arcturi sidera nobis, 
Hoedorumque dies servandi, et lucidus anguis ; 
Quam quibus in patriam ventosa per aequora 
vectis / 206 

Pontus, et ostriferi fauces tentantur Abydi. 



yet have I seen Ihem degene- 
rate, unless i man picked out 
the largest of them one by one 
every year. Thus every thing 
by fate degenerates and runs 
backwards: just as when any 
one is rowing with difficulty 
against a stream, if he happens 
to slacken his arms, immedi* 
ately the tide drives him head- 
long down the river. Besides 
we ought as much to observe 
the stars of Arcturus, and the 
days of the kids, and the shin- 
ing dragon ; as those, who re- 
turning homewards through 
the stormy main, venture m 
the Euxine sea, and the straits 
of oyiiter-breeding Abydos. 



200. Retro sublapsa referri.] Thus 
in the second iEneid : 

Ex illo fluere cc retro sullapsa referri 
Spes Danaum. 

203. Alquer\ Aulus Gellius ob- 
serves that atque is to be rendered 
statim in this passage: " Et prae- 
** terea pro alio quoque adverbio 
" dicitur, id est statim, quod in his 
" Virgilii versibus existimatur ob- 
" scure et insequenter particula ista 
" posita esse." 

204. PrcBterea, c^c] In this pas- 
sage the poet inculcates the necessity 
of understanding Astronomy: which 
he says is as useful to the farmer, as 
to the sailor. 

204. Arcturi.'] Arcturus is a star 
of the first magnitude in the sign 
Bootes, near the tail of the Great 
Bear. Its name is derived from 
et^KTog, a bear, and ov^x, a tail. The 
weather is said to be tempestuous 
about the time of its rising : '' vehe- 
" mentissimosignificatu/'says Pliny, 
*' terra marique per dies quinque :" 
and in another place ; " Arcturi 
*' vero sidus non ferme sine pro- 
*' cellosa grandine emergit." 

205. Hcedorum.'] The kids are 
two stars on the arm of Auriga. 
They also predict storms, according 
to Aratus : 



El Yi roi rivio'^cv Ti Koi ati^ecg vvio^eto 
^xi^TitrBai ^oxioi xetirei <paris i]Xu3-tv aiybf 
AtfT^j 'h y l^i^uv, eiT iiv aXi zfo^(pvgiovtfif 
Uokkcixts iffxi-^avro Kihatof^Uv? avS-^ca^ns. 

And Pliny : ** Ante omnia autem 
'* duo genera esse caelestis injuriae 
* ' meminisse debemus. Unum quod 
" tempestates vocamus, in quibus 
'' grandines, procellae, caeteraque si- 
" milia intelliguntur : quae cum ac- 
'' ciderint vis major appellatur. Hrec 
" ab horridis sideribus exeunt, ut 
" saepius diximus, veluti Arcturo, 
" Orione, Hoedis." 

A7iguis.'] Thedragon is a northern 
constellation. See the note on ver. 
244. 

207. Pontus,'] This is commonly 
taken to mean the Hellespont : but 
that is to be understood by the 
straits of Abydos, fauces Ahydi. I 
take it to mean the Black or Euxine 
sea, which has the character of being 
very tempestuous. 

Ostriferi Ahydi.] Abydos is situ- 
ated on the Asiatic side of the Helle- 
spont. It was famous for oysters : 
thus Ennius : 

Mures sunt iEni, aspera ostrea plurima 
Abydi. 

And Catullus ; 

Hunc lucum libi dedico, consecroque, 
Priape, 



46 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



When Libra has made the 
hours of the day and sleep 
equal, and now divides the 
world between light and dark- 
ness, then work your bullocks, 
ye ploughmen, and sow barley 
in the fields, tdi about the last 
shower of the impracticable 
winter solstice. 



Libra dies somnique pares ubi fecerit horas, 
Et medium luci, atque umbris jam dividit orbem : 
Exercete, viri, tauros; serite hordea campis, 210 
Usque sub extremum brumae intractabilis im- 
brem. 



Qua domus tua Lampsaci est, quaque 

sylva Priape. 
Nam te praecipue in suis urbibus colit ora 
Hellespontia, casteris ostreosior oris. 

208. Libra dies, S^ci] Here Vir- 
gil exemplifies his precept relating 
to Astronomy. 

The time, which he mentions for 
sowing barley, is from the autumnal 
equinox to the winter solstice. This 
perhaps may seem strange to an 
English reader; it being our cus- 
tom to sow it in the spring. But it 
is certain that in warmer climates 
they sow it at the latter end of the 
year : whence it happens that their 
barley harvest is considerably sooner 
than their wheat harvest. Thus we 
find in the book of Exodus, that the 
flax and the barley were destroyed 
by the hail, because the barley was 
in the ear, and the flax was in seed, 
but the wheat and the rye escaped, 
because they were not yet come up. 

I>ies.~^ Amongst the ancient Ro- 
mans the genitive case of the fifth 
declension ended in es: thus dies 
was the same with what we now 
write diei. Sometimes it was written 
die: which all the editors receive in 
this place. I have restored dies, on 
the authority of A. Gellius, who 
says that those, who saw Virgil's 
own manuscript, affirmed, that it 
was written dies. " Q. Ennius in 
" sexto decimo annali dies scripsit 
" pro diei in hoc versu : 

** Postremu longingua dies confecerit cetas. 

" Ciceronem quoque affirmat Caesel- 
" lius in oratione, quam pro P. Sestio 
" fecit, (f/e* scripsisse, pro diei, quod 



" ego impensa opera conquisitis ve- 
" teribus libris plusculis ita, ut Cae- 
" sellius ait scriptum inveni. Verba 
" sunt haec Marci TuUii : Equites 
*' vero daturos illius dies poenas. Quo 
'^ circa factum hercle est, ut facile 
'' iis credam, qui scripserunt idio- 
" graphum librum Virgilii se in- 
" spexisse ; in quo ita scriptum est : 

*' Libra dies somnique pares ubi fecerit 
*« horas : 

" id est. Libra diei somnique." 

209. Dividit.'] So I find it in both 
the Arundel ian manuscripts, and in 
Heinsius, and several of the old edi- 
tions. Servius, and after him most 
of the editors read dividet. 

210. Hordea.] Servius informs 
us that Bavius and Maevius were 
greatly offended at Virgil, for using 
hordea in the plural number : and 
expressed their resentment in the 
following verse : 

Hordea qui dixit, superest ut tritica dicat. 

Hence it seems that the objections, 
which those ancient critics made 
to Virgil, were only grammatical 
cavils. 

211. Usque sub extremum brurnce 
intractabilis imbrem.] Bruma cer- 
tainly means the winter solstice : but 
what Virgil means by the last 
shower of it I must acknowledge 
myself unable to explain. Pliny 
understands our poet to mean that 
barley is to be sown between the 
autumnal equinox and the winter 
solstice. " Virgilius triticum et far 
*' a vergiliarum occasu seri jubet, 
" hordeum inter scquinoctium au- 



GEORG. LIB. I. 

Ncc non et lini segetem, et Cereale papaver 



47 



U is also lime to cover flax in 
the ground, and the poppy of 
Ceres, 



*' tumni et brumam." The same 
author tells us expressly that barley 
is to be sown only in dry weather : 
" Hordeum, nisi sit siccum, ne se- 
^' rito." Palladius speaks of sowing 
barley in September, October, and 
November; but says it is full late 
to sow it in December : " Decerabri 
" mense seruntur frumenta, triti- 
" cum, far, hordeum, quamvis hor- 
" dei satio jam sera sit." These 
directions of Pliny and Palladius 
seem by no means to agree with 
Virgil's extending the sowing time 
to the last shower of the solstice. 
The autumnal equinox, in Virgil's 
time, was about the twenty-fourth 
of September ; and the winter sol- 
stice about the twenty-fifth of De- 
cember. Hipparchus, according to 
Columella, places it on the seven- 
teenth of December, and the Chal- 
deans on the twenty-fourth. Ac- 
cording to Pliny it was on the 
twenty-fifth : '' Bruma Capricorni 
" ab VIII. Calend. Januarii fere." 

The poet calls the winter solstice 
iniractabilis, because the cold, which 
comes at that season, begins to put 
a stop to the labours of the plough- 
man. That the cold begins to be 
severe at that time, even in Italy, 
we have the testimony of Lucre- 
tius: 

Tandem bruma nives adfert, pigrumque 

rigorem 
Reddit, Hyems sequitur, crepitans ac 

denlibus Algus. 

212. Lini.'] Columella and Pal- 
ladius agree with Virgil about the 
time of sowing flax. Columella 
says it is from the first of October 
to the seventh of December : '' Se- 
" ritur a Calendis Octobris in or- 
"tum Aquilae, qui est vii. Idus 
*' Decembris." Palladius says the 
time for sowing of it is October : 



" Hoc mense lini semen seremus." 
And again, under December, he 
says, " Hoc etiam mense adhuc 
'^ lini semen spargi poterit, usque 
" ad VII. Idus Decembris." Pliny 
differs from all these writers, and 
says it is sown in the spring : " \^ere 
" linum, et avenam, et papaver;" 
and in another place, '* Vere satum 
" aestate vellitur." The time of 
sowing flax with us is in March. 

Cereale papaver.'] I have spoken 
of poppies at large, in the note on 
ver. 78. Pliny speaks of sowing 
them in the spring, as we have 
seen in the preceding note. Co- 
lumella agrees with Virgil : " Chae- 
'^ rephyllum, itemque olus atriplicis, 
" quod Graeci vocant«Tgee<pfle|<i', circa 
" Calendas Octobris obrui oportet 
" non frigidissimo loco. Nam si 
" regio saevas hyeraes habet, post 
" Idus Februariassemine disserenda 
" sunt, suaque de sede partienda. 
'^ Papaver et anethum eandem ha- 
" bent conditionem sationis, quam 
'' chserephyllum et aiT^ci(pet^ti.'' Pal- 
ladius says the time of sowing pop- 
pies is in September : '^ Nunc pa- 
" paver seritur locis siccis, et calidis: 
" potest et cum aliis oleribus semi- 
" nan." 

Many are the reasons assigned by 
the commentators for the epithet ce- 
reale being added to Papaver. Ser- 
vius assigns the following reasons : 
either because it is eaten like com ; 
or because Ceres made use of pop- 
pies to forget her grief, and was 
thrown thereby into a sleep, when 
she had watched a long time on 
account of the rape of Proserpine ; 
or because Mycon the Athenian, 
who was beloved by Ceres, was 
transformed into a poppy j or be- 
cause it was sprinkled upon bread. 
La Cerda quotes the authority of 
Eusebius, in his third book de Free- 



48 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



ToarhTrrowins? '" "'''" TciTipus huino tegere, et jamdudum incurabere 
rastris, 213 



paratione Evangelica, that Ceres was 
accounted the inventress of poppies. 
Ruaeus has the same quotation: but 
I fear he took it implicitly from La 
Cerda. I wish these commentators 
had given us the words of Eusebius : 
for I cannot find any passage in that 
author, which agrees with what they 
have said. I find, in the third book 
of Eusebius, a quotation from Por- 
phyry, where he says the statues of 
Ceres are adorned with ears of corn, 
and that poppies are added, as a sym- 
bol of fruitfulness : A<o kcc] xccriTiTflxi 
TO ^^zreiq ctVTiig ro7g Tct^vFt, /ziiKavig ts 
TTi^i uvTijv rUg HFoXvyoiiocg criffeJooXof. La 
Cerda gives another reason : that 
Ceres relieved her hunger with pop- 
pies, as appears from the fourth 
book of Ovid's Fasti. We are there 
told, that, when Celeus invited Ceres 
to refresh herself in his cottage, his 
little boy was sick, and could get 
no rest ; upon which Ceres gathered 
some poppies, to cure him, and tast- 
ed them herself unawares. She de- 
clined eating with Celeus, and gave 
the poppies to the boy with warm 
milk : 

Dux comiti narrat, quam sit sibi filius 
aeger; 
Nee capiat somnos, invigiletque malis. 
Ilia soporiferum, parvos initura penates, 

Colligit agresti lene papaver humo. 
Dum legit; oblito fertur gustasse palato, 
Longamque imprudens exoluisse fa- 
mem. 
«*#»*• ****** 

Mox. epulas ponunt, liquefacta coagula 
lacte, 
Pomaque, et in teneris aurea mella 
favis. 
Abstinet alma Ceres, somnique papavera 
causas 
Dat tibi cum tepido lacte bibenda puer. 

La Cerda quotes Brodaeus for an- 
other reason: that poppies were sown 
amongst the corn, for the sacrifices 



of Ceres. Again he quotes Brodaeus, 
and also Turnebus, who observe that 
the statues of that goddess are fre- 
quently adorned with poppies. Last- 
ly, he quotes a reason assigned by 
Mancinellus, that there is a sort of 
poppy called ^vXccyJing, of which a 
wholesome sort of bread may be 
made. The reason assigned by 
Probus, because poppies are com- 
mon amongst the corn which is 
under the protection of Ceres, 
cannot be right ; because the poppy 
heads, which are so common on the 
statues of Ceres, plainly belong to 
the cultivated sort, not to that which 
grows amongst the corn. Ruasus 
thinks the best reason is because it 
appears from Pliny, that the seeds 
of white poppies were frequently 
eaten by the ancients : " Vel potius, 
" quia papaveriscandidi semen ioslum 
" in secunda mensa cum melle apud 
" antiquos dabatur. et panis rustici 
*' crusia eo inspergebatur, ^uxta. Plin. 
" lib. xix. 8. idque ad delicias et 
" famem excitandara : unde vescmn 
" papaver, id est, edide dicitur G. 
" iv. 131." This indeed shews why 
our poet called the poppy vescmn 
papaver: but I think it does not 
seem to explain the epithet Cereale. 
This is certain, that poppies were 
consecrated by the ancients to Ceres, 
and that most of her statues are 
adorned with them. 

213. Rastris.'] So I find it in the 
King's the Bodleian, and both the 
Arundelian manuscripts. Pierius 
found the same reading in the Me- 
dicean, and several other ancient 
copies. Servius, Heinsius, and most 
of the editors, read aratris. Virgil 
had already spoken of ploughing 
the ground, and sowing barley, flax, 
and poppies. It is not probable 
therefore that he should conclude 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



49 



Dum sicca tellure licet, dum nubila pendent. S!,''fcalt S.CcSdf'm 

XT /•!• i.* A. .. TliTJ' hangover. Spring i? the time 

Vere labis satio: turn te quoque, Medica, pu- fv^smving beans: anfi ihee 



tres 



215 



also, O Medick, the rotten 



with a repetition of ploughing. But 
the sense is very clear, if, according 
to these ancient manuscripts, we 
understand him to speak of harrow- 
ing. Mr. B — has translated him 
in this sense : 

Nor should the harrcrjo's labour ever end, 
Whilst dry the glebe, whilst clouds as 
yet impend. 

Dr. Trapp also in his note upon this 
passage says roLstris is much better 
than aratris. 

214. Dum sicca tellure licet, dum 
imhila pendent.'] Rujeus differs from 
the rest of the commentators, in his 
interpretation of this verse. He 
thinks that the poet does not mean, 
that this is to be done before the 
rainy season begins, but that those 
days are to be chosen, which prove 
dry and fair. *' Plerique post Ser- 
*' vium, interpretantur : antequam 
*' pluat, dum imber imminet, nec- 
" dum venit pluviosa tempestas. 
" Ego sic : quoties, in ilia ipsa plu- 
^' viosa tempestate, terra erit paulo 
*' siccior, et imber suspensus. Et 
" vero poeta sationem illam assignat 
" Autumno, cujus ultima pars plu- 
" viosa est : eandemque sationem 
" profert usque sub extremum hrumcB 
" imbrcm : non igitur jubet prseve- 
*' niri tempestatem imbriferam ; sed 
" ilHus tempestatis eos eligi dies qui 
*' sicci magis ac sereni erunt." 

Several of the old printed editions 
haiwejacet instead of licet. 

215. Vere fahis satio ^ I do not 
find any of the ancient writers of 
agriculture to agree with Virgil 
about the time of sowing beans. 
Varro says they are sown about the 
latter end of October : " Fabam op- 
" time sen in vergiliarum occasu." 



Columella says it is not right to 
sow them after the winter solstice ; 
but that the worst time of all is in 
the spring : " Post brumam parum 
" recte seritur, pessime vere, quam- 
" vis sit etiam trimestris faba, quae 
*' mense Februario seratur; quinta 
" parte amplius, quam matura, sed 
'' exiguas paleas, nee multam sili- 
" quam facit." Palladius says beans 
are sown at the beginning of No- 
vember : " In hujus principio fabam 
*' spargimus." Pliny mentions their 
being sown in October: '^ Seritur 
" ante vergiliarum occasum, legu- 
" minum prima, ut antecedat hye- 
'' mem." But Pliny's words, which 
follow immediately, shew that, in 
Virgil's own country, beans were 
sown in the spring : " Virgilius eam 
" per ver seri jubet, circumpadanae 
" Italiae ritu.' ' We find by this pas- 
sage, that those, who lived near the 
Po, did not always sow at the same 
time with the rest of Italy. Hence 
it is no wonder, if we do not always 
find an exact agreement between 
our poet, and the other Latin 
writers. 

Medica.'] This plant has its name 
from Media, because it was brought 
from that country into Greece, at 
the time of the Persian war, under 
Darius, according to Pliny : " Me- 
" dica externa, etiam Graecise, ut a 
*•' Medis advecta per bella Persa- 
*• rum, quae Darius intulit." It is of 
late years brought to us from France 
and Switzerland, and sown to good 
advantage under the name of Lil- 
cern. Ray affirms, that the Lucern 
or Luzerne of the French is the 
Onobrychis, known to us under the 
name of Sa'int-Foin, or, as it is cor- 
ruptly called, Cinquefoil: and that 



50 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



SSis aTinn'aaTcarT,"''' '' Accipiuot sulci ; ct iTiilio vciiit annua cura : 



the Medica is called by the French 
Saint-fom, Foin de Burgogne, and 
grand Treffle. Hence, he observes, 
appears the mistake of our seeds- 
men and farmers, who sow the 
Onobrychis, instead of the Medica, 
under the name of Saint-fom. But 
I suspect that learned author was 
misinformed, because Toumefort 
has given Luserne for the French 
name of Medica, and Saint-Join for 
that of Onohrychis. The names 
by which our English botanists 
have called the Medica, are Bur- 
gundy Trefoil, and Medick fodder, 
Pliny says it is sown in May; 
but Palladius says the season is in 
April: " Aprili mense in areis, quas 
'^ ante, sicut diximus, praeparasti, 
" Medica serenda est." The best 
manner of cultivating this useful 
plant in England is described at 
large by Mr. Miller, in his Garden- 
er's Dictionary, under the article of 
Medica. 

Putres sulci.'] Putris signifies rot- 
ten or crumbling. Thus we find, 
near the beginning of this Georgick, 
putris used to express the melting 
or crumbling of the earth upon a 
thaw : 

Vere novo, gelidus canis cum montibus 

humor 
Liquitur, et zephyro putris se gleba re- 

solvit. 

In the second Georgick, it is used to 
express a loose crumbling soil, such 
as we render the earth by ploughing : 

Et cui putre solum, namque hoc imitamur 
arando. 

Perhaps Virgil may mean, in this 
place, a soil that has been well 
dunged. Columella says the ground 
must first be ploughed in October, 
and suffered to rot all the winter, and 
dunged in the spring : " Locum in 
'' quo Medicam proximo vere satu- 



" rus es, proscindito circa calendas 
" Octobris, et eum tota hyeme pu- 
'' trescere sinito — Postea circa Mar- 
" tiura mensem tertiato, et occato. — 
" Deinde vetus stercus injicito." In 
another place he says pinguis and pu- 
tris are the same: '^Idem pinguis ac 
" putris." And we find the ancients 
to agree, that the ground was to be 
dunged for sowing Medick. Pliny 
says the ground must be well la- 
boured in autumn, and dunged: 
" Solum, in quo seratur, elapidatum 
" purgatumque subigitur autumno: 
" raox aratura et occatum integitur 
'^ crate iterum et tertium, quinis die- 
^' bus interpositis, et fimo addito." 
Palladius agrees with Pliny, except 
with regard to the time of preparing 
the ground, which he says is in Fe- 
bruary : '' Nunc ager, qui acceptu- 
" rus est Medicam, de cujus natura, 
" cum erit serenda, dicemus, iteran- 
'' dus est, et,purgatis lapidibus, di- 
" ligenter occandus. Et circa Mar- 
" tias Calendas, subacto sicut in hor- 
'^ tis solo, formandse sunt areas latae 
'' pedibus decem, longae pedibus 
" quinquaginta, ita ut eis aqua mi- 
'' nistretur, et facile possint ex utra- 
" que parte runcari. Tunc injecto 
'' antiquo stercore in Aprilem men- 
'^ sera reserventur paratae." With 
us a loose sandy soil seems to agree 
very well with it. 

216. Milio venit annua cura."] This 
expression of the annual care of mil- 
let is used by the poet to shew that 
the Medick lasts many years, Pliny 
says it lasts thirty: '" Tanta dos 
*' ejus est, cum uno satu amplius 
'' quam tricenis annis duret." Co- 
lumella and Palladius says it lasts 
ten: " Eximia," says Columella, "est 
" herba medica, quod cum semel se- 
" ritur, decem annis durat." The 
words of Palladius are, " Quae semel 
" seritur, decem annis permanet." 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



51 



Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum 



when the bright bull opens the 
year with his golden horns, 



Seneca, in his eighty-sixth Epistle, 
reproves our poet, for placing the 
time of sowing beans, medick, and 
millet in the same season, and says 
he saw the farmers gathering beans 
and sowing millet about the latter 
end of June. Hence he takes oc- 
casion to observe, that Virgil does 
not confine himself to truth, but 
only endeavours to divert his read- 
ers ; " Virgilius noster non quid 
" verissime, sed quid decentissime, 
" diceretur, adspexit ; nee agricolas 
" docere voluit, sed legentes delec- 
" tare. Nam, ut omnia alia trans- 
" feram,hoc quod hodie mihi necesse 
" fuit reprehendere, ascribara : 

*' Verefahis satio est : hinc te quoque Me- 

" dica putres 
" Accipiunt stilci, et niilio venit annua cura. 

" An uno tempore istaponendasint: 
" et an utriusque verna sit satio, hinc 
" aestimes licet. Junius mensis est 
" quo tibi scribo, jam proclivus in 
" Julium. Eodem die vidi fabam 
" metentes, milium serentes." But 
Virgil does not say that beans and 
millet are sown precisely at the same 
time. He says that beans are sown 
in the spring, that is, in February or 
March, and that millet is sown 
when the sun enters Taurus, that is, 
about the seventeenth of April, and 
when the dog sets, that is, about the 
end of the same month. This agrees 
with what other authors have said. 
Pliny says, millet is sown before 
the rising of the Pleiades, that is, 
according to Columella, before the 
seventh of May : " Frumenti ipsius 
" totidem genera per tempora satu 
" divisa. Hyberna, quae circa ver- 
" giliarum occasum sata terra per 
" hyemem nutriuntur, ut triticum, 
" far, hordeum. -Estiva, quae aestate 
" ante vergiliarum exortum serun- 
" tur, ut milium." Palladius says. 



that in warm and dry countries, 
millet is sown in March : " Calidis 
" et siccis regionibus panicum sere- 
" mus, et milium ;" but that in cold 
and wet places it is sown in May : 
*' Maio mense, locis frigidis, et 
" humectis, panicum seremus, et 
" milium." 

217. Candidus auratis aperit cum 
cornibus annum Taurus."] By the 
bull's opening the year, Virgil means 
the sun's entering into Taurus; 
which, according to Columella, is 
on the seventeenth of April: " De- 
" cimo quinto calendas Maias sol 
" in Taurum transitum facit." April 
is said to have its name ab aperiendo, 
whence the poet uses the expression 
aperire annum. Servius thinks this 
passage is not to be rendered the 
bull opens the year with his golden 
horns, but the bull with golden horns 
opens the year; because the bull 
does not rise with his horns, but 
with his back. La Cerda adheres 
to the former interpretation, and 
supports it with the authority of 
Manilius, who uses an expression 
something like it, of the bull's bear- 
ing the sun upon his horns. This 
poet speaks also of that sign's be- 
ginning the labours of the plough- 
man : as this seems to have some 
relation to what Virgil has said, I 
shall set down the whole passage : 

Taurus simplicibus donavit ruracolonis: 
Pacatisque labor veniet, patientia laudis, 
Sed lerrae tribuet partus : summittit 

aratris 
Coila, jugumque suis poscit cervicibus 

ipse. 
lUe suis Phoebl portat cum cornibus 

orbem, 
Militiam indicit terris, et seguia rura 
In veteres revocat cultus dux ipse 

laboris, 
Nee jacet in sulcis solvitque in pulvere 

pectus. 
Seranos Curiosque tulit/facilesque per 

arva 
H 2 



52 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



^o'Jbe'ba&rrd'sSn!"^ "'' Taurus, ct avcrso cedens Canis occidit astro. 



Tradidit, eque suo dictator venit aratro. 
Laudis amor, tacitae mentes, et corpora 

tarda 
Mole valent, habitatque puer sub fronte 

cupido. 

218. Aver so cedens canis occidit 
astro.'] Servius says some read aver- 
so, others adverso. Pierius says it 
is adverso in the Roman and Lom- 
bard manuscripts; but averso in 
others. In the Medicean, he says, it 
is averso iticedens. The King's, both 
Dr. Mead's, and one of the Arunde- 
lian manuscripts have adverso. The 
other Arundelian and the Cam- 
bridge manuscript have averso. 
The Bodleian has verso. La Cerda 
and several of the old editors read 
adverso. Heinsius, Ruaeus, and 
many others prefer averso. The 
commentators are greatly divided 
about the meaning of this passage. 
Servius interprets it two different 
ways : if we admit adverso, it is to 
be rendered the dog with the adverse 
constellation, because with the dog 
arises Sirius, who is adverse, or in- 
jurious to mankind; if we admit 
averso, cum must be understood, 
and the sense will be, when the dog 
giving place sets with the backward 
sign, that is, the ship, which rises 
backwards. Grimoaldus seems to 
understand it to mean that the dog 
is obscured by the sun when he en- 
ters Taurus: " Cum canis in scor- 
" pione constitutus propter tauri so- 
^' lem tenentis vicinitatem occulitur 
'^ et obscuratur." According to 
this interpretation, the sun must be 
the adversum astrum. La Cerda 
seems to adhere to the first inter- 
pretation of Servius : " Cum canis 
" heliace occidit, qui habet astrum 
" adversum contrariumque morta- 
" libus." Ruaeus, according to Ser- 
vius's second interpretation, takes 
the ship to be the aversum astrum : 



but instead of understanding cum, 
with Servius, he takes averso astro 
to be the dative case, governed of 
cedens. Thus the sense will be, the 
dog sets, giving place to the backward 
sign, or ship. I rather believe, that 
Virgil meant the bull by the aversum 
astrum : for that constellation is 
known to rise backwards. Thus 
Manilius : 

Aversus venit in caelum. 

It seems more natural to suppose 
that Virgil should mean the bull, 
which he had just mentioned, than 
the ship, which he has not once 
named in the whole poem. Dryden 
translates this passage : 

When with the golden horns, in full 

career. 
The bull beats down the barriers of the 

year; 
And Argos and the Dog forsake the 

northern sphere. 

Mr. B — *s translation is reconcil- 
able with the sense which I have 
proposed : 

When with his horns the bull unbars the 

year. 
And frighten'd flies the dog, and shuns 

the adverse star. 

Dr. Trapp has followed Ruseus : 

When now with srolden horns 



The shining bull unlocks the op'ning 

year, 
And, setting, to the ship the dog gives 

way. 

The sun enters Taurus, according 
to Columella, on the seventeenth of 
April, as I observed at the begin- 
ning of this note. According to 
the same author, the dog sets with 
the sun on the last day of the same 
month : " Pridie calendas Maias 
" canis se vespere celat." Pliny says, 
that, according to the Boeotians and 
Athenians, it is on the twenty-sixth 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



53 



At si triticeam in messem, robustaque farra 
Exercebis hiimum, solisque instabis aristis: 
Ante tibi Eoae Atlantides abscondantur, 



But if you work the eround 
for a wheat harvest, and for 
strong spelt, and labour only 
for the bearded ears, let 
the morning Pleiades first be 
hidden. 



of April ; but, according to the Assy- 
rians, on the twenty-ninth: ^' Sexto 
" calendas Maii Boeotiae et Atticae 
" canis vesperi occultatur, fidicula 
" mane oritur : quinto calendas As- 
*' syriae Orion totus absconditur^ 
" tertio autem canis." 

219. Triticeam in messem.'] The 
iriticum of the ancients was not our 
common or lammas wheat, but a 
bearded sort. Hence arista, which 
signifies the beard, is often used by 
the poets for wheat: but it would 
be too 'dolent a figure to put the 
beard for corn, which has no beard 
at all. Cicero, in his Cato major, 
speaking of the pleasures of hus- 
bandmen, gives a beautiful descrip- 
tion of the growth of corn, and 
mentions the beard as a palisade, 
to defend the grain : " Me quidem 
'' non fructus modo, sed etiara ip- 
" sius terrae vis, ac natura delectat : 
*' quae cum gremio mollito ac 
" subacto semen sparsum accepit : 
*' primum occaecatum cohibet ; ex 
*' quo occatio, quae hoc efficit, no- 
" minata est : deinde tepefactum va- 
" pore, et complexu suo, difFundit, 
" et elicit herbescentem ex eo viri- 
" ditatem: quae nixa fibris stirpium, 
'' sensim adolescit, culmoque erecta 
" geniculato, vaginis jam quasi pu- 
** bescens includitur, e quibus cum 
"^ emerserit, fundit frugem, spicae 
" ordine structam, et contra avium 
" minorum morsum munitur vallo 
" aristarum." I shall add another 
proof, that the iriticum wa^ bearded: 
all the statues and medals of Ceres, 
that ever I saw, have no other corn 
represented on them than that which 
is bearded. 

Farra.'] See the note on Farra, 
ver. 73. 



220. Aristis.] Arista is the beard 
of corn : " Spica ea, quae mutilata 
" non est, in ordeo et tritico, tria 
** habet continentia, granum, glu- 
" mam, aristam : et etiam primitus 
" cum spica oritur, vaginam. Gra- 
*' num dictum quod est intimum 
" solidum : gluma, qui est follicu- 
" lus ejus : arista, quae, ut acus te- 
*' nuis, longa eminet e gluma; pro- 
'' inde ut grani theca sit gluma, 

" apex arista. Arista dicta quod 

" arescit prima." Varro de Re Rust, 
lib. i. cap. 48. 

221. EocB Atlantides abscondantur.} 
Atlas had seven daughters by Plei- 
one. Their names, according to 
Aratus, are Alcyone, Merope, Ce- 
lajno, Electra, Sterope, Taygete, and 
Maia; 

'AXxvovrij Mego'«r>jT8, KeXutvej t*, 'HX«»- 

Ka) "Sri^ovh, xa) Invyirn, xa) zt'ovnot, 
MuTa. 

See the note on ver. 138. 

By the epithet Eooe, Virgil does 
not mean setting in the east, as some 
have imagined, but in the morning, 
at sun rising: that is, when the 
Pleiades go down below our western 
horizon, at the same time that the 
sun rises above our eastern horizon. 
Hesiod, according to Pliny, com- 
puted this to be at the autumnal 
equinox; Thales, twenty- five days 
after; Anaximander, twenty -nine; 
and Euctemon, forty-eight : " Occa- 
" sum matutinura vergiliarum He- 
" siodus, nam hujus quoque nomine 
" extat Astrologia, tradidit fieri, 
'' cum aequinoctium autumni con- 
*' ficeretur, Thales xxv die ab aequi- 
*' noctio, Anaximander xxix, Euc- 
" temon xlviii." Columella, in the 
second chapter of his eleventh book^ 



54 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



anrt let the Gnossian star of 
the blazing crown emerge. 



Gnosiaque ardentis decedat stella coronae, 



says they begin to set at sun-rising 
on the 21st of October: " Duode- 
" cimo calendas Novembris solis 
" exortu vergiliae incipiunt occi- 
" dere/* In the eighth chapter of his 
second book, he comments on this 
very passage of Virgil. He there 
says the Pleiades set on the thirty - 
first day after the autumnal equinox, 
which happens on the twenty-third 
of September : wherefore the time 
of sowing wheat must be understood 
to be six and forty days from the 
setting of the Pleiades, which is be- 
fore the twenty-fourth of October, 
to the time of the winter solstice. 
'•' Absconduntur autem altero et 
'• trigesimo die post autumnale ae- 
" quinoctium, quod fere conficitur 
" nono calendas Octobris, propter 
" quod intelligi debet tritici satio 
" dierum sex, et quadraginta ab 
" occasu vergiliaruro, qui fit ante 
" diem nonam calendarum Novem- 
" bris, ad brumae tempora." I be- 
lieve instead of ante diem nonam, we 
should read ad diem nonam ; for the 
ninth of the calends of November, 
which is the twenty-fourth of Octo- 
ber, is exactly one and thirty days 
after the time which Columella 
fixes for the autumnal equinox: and 
from the twenty-fourth of October, 
there are just six and forty days to 
the twenty- fourth of December, 
which he reckons to. be the winter 
solstice : " Nono calendas Januarii 
'' brumale solstitium, sicut Chaldaei 
" observant." According to Pliny, 
the winter solstice is December the 
twenty-fifth. 

222. Gnosiaque ardentis decedat 
Stella coronce.'] Gnosus is a city of 
Crete, where Minos reigned, the fa- 
ther of Ariadne, who was carried 
away by Theseus, and afterwards 
deserted by him in the island of 
Naxos, where Bacchus fell in love 



with her and married her. At the 
celebration of their nuptials, all the 
gods made presents to the bride; 
and Venus gave her a crown, which 
Bacchus translated into the heavens, 
and made a constellation. One of 
the stars of this constellation is 
brighter than the rest, and rises be- 
fore the whole constellation appears. 
Thus Columella" reckons the bright 
star to rise on the eighth of October, 
and the whole constellation on the 
thirteenth or fourteenth : " Octavo 
" idus Octobris coronae clara stella. 
" exoritur, — Tertio et pridie idus 
" Octobris corona tota mane exo- 
*' ritur." Pliny tells us, that, accord- 
ing to Caesar, the bright star rises 
on the eighth of October, and the 
whole constellation on the fifteenth ; 
'' Octavo idus Octobris Caesari ful- 

" gens in corona stella oritur. 

" Idibus corona tota." Aratus men- 
tions the crown of Ariadne being 
placed in the heavens by Bacchus : 

AvTou xaxiTvas, s-i(pava;, roy ayavos %^*ixi 
"iiuTM f/Civ ^-'ifavos zrtXdit. 

Manilius has mentioned the superior 
brightness of one of these stars. 

At parte ex alia claro volat orbe corona 
Luce micans varia, nam stella vincitur 

una 
Circulus in medio radians, quae proxima 

f route 
Candidaque ardenti distinguit lumina 

flamma 
Gnosia desertae fulgent monumenta 

puellae. 

I have translated decedat, emerge, be- 
cause the commentators agree, that 
V' irgil means by that word the helia- 
cal rising of the crown ; that is, when 
the constellation, which before had 
been obscured by the superior light 
of the sun, begins to depart from it. 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



55 



Debita auam sulcis committas semina, quamque before you commit the due 

T^ It seeds to the furrows, and be- 

Invitae properes anni spem credere terrae. 
Multi ante occasum Maiae ccepere : sed illos 
Expectata seges vanis elusit aristis. 226 



fore you hasten to trust the 
hope of the year to the un- 
willing earth. Many have be- 
gun before Uie setting of 
Maia: but the expected crop 
has deceived them with empty 



and to appear in the eastern horizon 
before sun rising. I must own I 
have some doubt about this inter- 
pretation ; because Virgil never uses 
decedere, when applied to the sun, 
but for the setting of it. In the 
first Eclogue we find, 

Et sol crescentes deccdens duplicat um- 
bras : 

in this Georgick, 

— — Eroenso cum jam decedet Olympo . 

and in the fourth Georgick, 

Te veniente die, te decedente canebat. 

Therefore as decedere does signify 
to set, the poet should rather seem 
to mean the heliacal setting of the 
constellation, than the heliacal rising 
of it. Pliny would have the helia- 
cal rising to be called emersion, and 
the heliacal setting to be called oc- 
cupation : " Aut enim adventu solis 
" occultantur stellse et conspici de- 
*' sinunt, aut ejusdem abscessu pro- 
" ferunt se. Emersum hoc melius 
" quam exortum consuetude dix- 
'' isset: et illud occultationem potius 
'' quam occasum." One of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts has descendat 
instead of decedat, which is mani- 
festly wrong. Dryden however has 
translated it in that sense : 

And the bright Gnossian diaderh down- 
ward bend. 

Mr. B — has criticised on this line 
of Dryden, and seems to understand 
the poet to mean the heliacal setting 
of the crown : '' Mr. Dryden in this 
'' place, and in many others here- 
" after, discovers his little know- 
*' ledge of the lowest degree of 



'' astronomy. Ariadne's crown does 
" not bend downward, at the time 
" Virgil mentions, but rises with 
" the sun ; and as the sun's great 
<* light soon makes that star imper- 
" ceptible, this Virgil very poeti- 
" cally describes by 

*' Gnosiaque ardentis decedat stclla coronae.''* 

But this learned Gentleman, in his 
translation of this very passage, has 
represented the poet as speaking of 
the heliacal rising : 

First let the sisters in the morn go down. 
And from the sun retire the Gnossian 
crown. 

225. Ante occasum Maice.] Maia 
is one of the Pleiades : the poet puts 
a part for the whole. He speaks 
here against sowing too early : and 
we are informed by Columella, that 
it was an old proverb amongst the 
farmers, that an early sowing often 
deceives our expectation, but seldom 
a late one : " Vetus est agricolarum 
'' proverbium, maturara sationem 
*' ssepe decipere solere, seram nun- 
" quam, quin mala sit." 

226. Aristis.] See the notes on 
ver. 219 and 220. The King's, the 
Bodleian, one of the Arundelian, and 
both Dr. Mead's manuscripts have 
avenis. The other Arundelian, and 
the Cambridge manuscript have 
acervis. Pierius says the Roman 
manuscript has illusit aristis, and 
some others elusit aristis. But he 
prefers avenis, as it is in the Medi- 
cean copy, because avena is a de- 
generacy of corn. Heinsius reads 
aristis : which I take to be the true 
reading ; because I do not find that 
any ancient writer has ascribed the 



56 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



SSs,'orm^rkw!fe?-bl!l!fs'; ^^ ^^^^ viclamque seres, vilemque faselum, 

^e Egmian^Tentii, 1hrse*t- Ncc Pelusiacse curam aspernabere lentis ; 

ting of Bootes will give you -^ , , 

no obscure direction. Haud obscura cadens mittet tibi signa Bootes. 



growth of wild oats to the early 
sowing of corn. Besides vanis 
avenisj sounds too like a jingle to 
agree with the style of Virgil. It 
must be confessed however, that 
there is a passage in Tibullus, some- 
thing like this, which seems to coun- 
tenance the reading of avenis : 

Neu seges eludat messem fallacibus 
herbis. 

227. Vilem faselum J] The kidney- 
beans are said to have been very 
common among the Romans: and 
therefore the poet is thought to have 
given them the epithet of vile, 
mean, or common. He might use 
this epithet perhaps, because they 
might be sown in any sort of soil; 
as Pliny tel^s us. This author tells 
us also, that the Romans eat. the 
seeds in the shells, as we do now : 

" Siliquae faseolorum cum ipsis 

" manduntur granis. Serere eos 
'' qua velis terra licet ab idibus 
'' Octobris in calendas Novembris," 

228. Pelusiacce leniis.] Pelusium 
is a town of Egypt, which gives 
name to one of the seven mouths of 
the Nile. He calls the lentil Pe- 
lusian, or Egyptian, because the 
best are said to grow in that coun- 
try. 

229. Bootes.'] This is a northern 
constellation, near the tail of the 
Great Bear. Arcturus, as has been 
already observed, is a part of this 
constellation. Thus Aratus : 

'E^o^iB^tv V IXtKyis <pi^irai ixdovri loixug 
'A^Kro(puX.ce^, <ravp av^^a l-rixXuovtri BournVy 

KaJ //.xXk -sras a^i^tiXeg' v^o Z,uvvi Ss ol 
alro? 



The time of the setting of Arcturus, 
according to Columella, is on the 
twenty -ninth of October : '' Quarto 
'* calendas Novembris Arcturus ves- 
" pere occidit." Let us see now how 
far the other ancient writers agree 
with our poet. As for vetches or 
tares. Columella mentions two times 
of sowing them ; the first for fodder, 
about the time of the autumnal equi- 
nox i the second for seed, about Ja- 
nuary : " Viciae autem duse sationes 
'^ sunt. Prima quam pabuli causa 
" circa aequinoctium auturanale se- 
^' rimus, septem modios ejus in 
" unum jugerum. Secunda quae sex 
^' modios, mense Januario, vel etiam 
'' serius jacimus, seminiprogeneran- 
'' do." The first of these times is 
about a month sooner than the acro- 
nical setting of Arcturus; that is, 
when Arcturus sets with the sun. 
The second time Virgil has express- 
ed, by advising the sowing time to 
be extended to the middle of the 
frost. The middle of winter, ac- 
cording to Columella, is on the 
fourth of January : " Pridie nonas 
" Januarii media hyems." Pliny 
mentions three seasons: the first 
about the setting of Arcturus, when 
they are designed for seed : the se- 
cond in January: the third in 
March, for fodder: '' Sationis ejus 
" tria tempora : circa occasum Arc- 
" turi, ut Decembri mense pascat, 
" tunc optime seritur in semen. 
" Secunda satio mense Januario est : 
'^ novissima Martio, turn adfrondem 
'^ utilissima." The first of these 
times is the same with that which 
Virgil mentions. The second agrees 
with Columella. The third seems 
not to have been mentioned by the 
poet : unless we may suppose that by 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



Iilcipe, et ad medias sementem extende pruinas. 
Idcirco certis dimensum partibus orbem 281 
Per duodena regit miindi Sol aureus astra. 



Begin and extend your sow- 
ing time lo (he middle of the 
frosts. Tor tins purpose the 
golden sun governs the orb of 
the world divided into certain 
parts, through twelve constel- 
lations. 



the setting of Bootes, he designed to 
express both the acronical and the 
cosmical setting of Arcturus. The 
cosmical setting, that is, the setting 
at sun-rising, of Arcturus then hap- 
pened in March. Palladius follows 
Columella: for he mentions Sep- 
tember as the first time of sowing : 
" nunc viciae prima satio est, et faeni 
" graeci cum pabuli causa seruntur:" 
and January, as the other time : 
" hoc raense ultimo, colligendi se- 
*' minis causa, non pabuli secandi, 
^' vicia seritur." As for kidney 
beans, I think, Palladius alone has 
mentioned the time of sowing them, 
which he settles to be from the be- 
ginning to the middle of October, 
which is about a fortnight sooner 
than the time prescribed by Virgil : 
'* Seremus sisamum usque ad idus 
" Octobres, et faselum." As for 
lentils, they all agree that November 
is the time; only Columella adds, 
that there is a second season in Fe- 
bruary: "Sationes ejus duas serva- 
" mus, alteram maturam per mediam 
" sementim, seriorem alteram mense 
" Februario." Pliny's words are, 
*' Ex leguminibus autera Novembri 
" seruntur lens, et in Graecia pisum." 
PaUadius, under the month of No- 
vember, says, " Nunc seritur prima 
" ienticula." 

230.] After this line, in one of 
the Arundelian manuscripts is added, 

Tempus Immo tegercy et jamdudum in- 
cumbere aratris. 

which is a repetition of ver. 213. It 
is observable, that this very manu- 
script, in the proper place of this 
verse, has raslris instead of aratris. 
231. Idcirco, ^-c] In these lines 
the poet, having, in honour of agri- 



culture, supposed the sun to make 
his annual journey, for the sake of 
that art, takes occasion to describe 
the five Zones, the Zodiac, the 
Northern Pole, and the Antipodes, 
in a most beautiful and poetical 
manner. 

232. MundL] The commentators 
are much divided about the inter- 
pretation of this passage. The most 
general opinion is that miindi follows 
astra; which makes the sense to be 
this : the sun governs the earth through 
twelve constellations of the noHd. 

Mr. B contends that mundi 

should follow Sol; and so renders 
it the golden sun of the world. " Jd- 
" circo," says he, " sol aureus mundi 
" (as in the beginning of this book, 
" clarissima mundi lumina) regit 
" orbem [suum] dimensum certis 
" partibus, per duodena astra." 
Thus, according to Mr. B or- 
bem signifies the course of the sun ; 
according to the general opinion, it 
is the globe of the earth. Ruaeus 
places mundi after astra, in his in- 
terpretation ; Dr. Trapp says, "it 
" may relate either to orbem or astra: 
" rather to the latter." I believe 
we must read orbem mundi, and 
understand it of the turning round 
of the heavens. We have those 
words used in this sense in Ma- 
nilius : 



-Nunc sidera ducit. 



Et rapit immensum inundi revolubilis 
orhem. 



According to the ancient philosophy, 
the earth is placed in the centre of 
the world, and the heavens turn 
round it once in four and twenty 
hours. Thus Pliny : " Formam 
" ejus in speciem orbis absoluti glo- 



58 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



vl;;iTtffiT„?is"'aiwa'A- Quinque tenent c^lum Zonse 

red with the bright sun, and 

always glowing with fire: COrUSCO 



quarum una 



Semper sole rubens, et torrida semper ab igni: 



" batam esse, nomen in primis et 
" consensus in eo mortalium, orbem 
'' appellantiura, seel et argumenta 
" rerum docent...Hanc ergo for- 
'' mam ejus, aeterno et irrequieto 
"^ ambitu inenarrabili celeritate, vi- 
" ginti quatuor horarum spatio cir- 
'' cumagi solis exortus et occasus 
'^ baud dubium reliquere...Nec de 
" dementis video dubitari, quatuor 
*' ea esse. Ignium summum, inde 
" tot stellarum collucentium illos 
" oeulos. Proximum spiritus, quara 
'' GraBci nostrique eodem vocabulo 
" aera appellant. Vitalem hunc, et 
^' per cuncta rerum meabilem, toto- 
" que consertum : hujus vi suspen- 
"/ sam, cum quarto aquarum ele- 
" mento, librari medio spatio tel- 
'' lurem... Inter banc caelum que, eo- 
'" dem spiritu pendent, certis dis- 
*' creta spatiis, septem sidera, quae 
" ab incessu vocamus errantia,quum 
'' errent nulla minus illis: eorum 
" medius Sol fertur amplissimamag- 
*' nitudine ac potestate: nee tempo- 
*' rum modo terrarumque, sed side- 
'* rumetiam ipsorum caelique rector. 
*' Hunc mundi esse totius animum, 
" ac planius mentem, hunc princi- 
" pale naturae regimen ac numen cre- 
' * dere decet opera ejus aestimantes." 
233. Quijique ienent ccelum Zonae.'] 
This description of the five zones is 
thought to be taken from Erato- 
sthenes. I shall set down his words 
as I find them quoted by Fulvius 
Ursinus, and La Cerda. 

At ^uo f^h yXauKoto xtXaivori^itt xuoivoto. 

T wrrof/.ivyi (pXoyfAoTffiv, i^ii pa IfAoT^av vx 

aurriv 
KixXifi,ivoi axTtvis aiiB^i^iis zfu^oucm. 
Al ^i ivo iKare^^i ziroXoio zgi^tTriTryiyuIat 



Alii K^vfAakiou, ai) B' vhuri fioyiovirai, 

oh f/,i¥ vhuQ, aXX' ahroi a.<r eu^avo^ev 

Ksirat avaTitr^^B zgi^i-^UKTOi Se Tirvxrm. 
'AXkcc ra fiiv ^i^tfaTa,, xoc) afiSara a.v9-^a- 

Loiai S' aXkoLi ictfftv havriai aXX^Xeuo'it 
Mifffftjyvs B-i^sos n xa) virtov x^vg-aXkau. 

Under the torrid or burni7ig zone 
lies that part of the earth, which is 
contained between the two tropics. 
This was thought by the ancients to 
be uninhabitable, because of the ex- 
cessive heat; but later discoveries 
have shewn it to be inhabited by 
many great nations. It contains a 
great part of Asia, Africa, and South 
America. Under the two frigid or 
cold zones lie those parts of the 
earth, which are included within 
the two polar circles, which are so 
cold, being at a great distance from 
the sun, as to be scarce habitable. 
Within the arctic circle, near the 
north pole, are contained Nova 
Zerabla, Lapland, Greenland, Sec. 
Within the antarctic circle, near the 
south pole, no land has yet been 
discovered: though the great quan- 
tities of ice found there make it pro- 
bable that there is more land near 
the north than the south pole. 
Under the two temperate zones are 
contained those parts of the globe, 
which lie between the tropics, and 
polar circles. The temperate zone, 
between the arctic circle and the tro- 
pic of Cancer, contains the greatest 
part of Europe and Asia, part of 
Africa, and almost all North Ame- 
rica. That between the antarctic 
circle and the tropic of Capricorn 
contains part of South America, or 
the Antipodes. 

234. The old Nurenberg edition 
has est after is;ni. 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



59 



Quam circum extremae dextra laevaque tra- 
huntur, 235 

Caerulea glacie concretae atque imbribus atris. 
Has inter mediamque duae mortalibus aegris 
Munere concessae divum. Via secta per ambas, 
Obliquus qua se signorum verteret ordo. 
Mundus ut ad Scythiam Riphaeasque arduus 
arces MO 



on each side of wbicli to right 
and left two others are drawn, 
stiff with blue ice and dark 
showers. Between these and 
the middle xone two are 
granted to weak mortals by 
the bounty of the gods. A 
path is cut between them for 
the oblique course of the signs 
to turn in. As the world is 
elevated at Scythia and the 
Riphaean hills. 



236. C(Brulea.'] Pierius says it is 
casrulece, in most of the ancient co- 
pies : and that it was cerulee in the 
Medicean copy, but had been altered 
to cerulea. One of the Arundelian 
manuscripts has coerulece. If this 
reading be admitted, we must alter 
the pointing thus : 

Quam circum extremae, dextra laevaque 
trahuntur 

Caeruleas: glacie concretae atque imbri- 
bus atris. 

So glacie concretes atque imbribus 
atris must be understood as the 
cause that these zones are blue. 
Pierius farther observes, that some 
manuscripts hsiwe ccieruleoe et glacie; 
which reading, though he does not 
approve, yet he thinks it a con- 
firmation of cceriilece. In the King's 
manuscript it is coeridea et glacie. 

9>SS. Munere concesscB diviim. 
Via secta per ambas, obliquus qua se 
signorum verteret ordo.'] So I point 
this verse with Heinsius : most of 
the editors have a comma or a se- 
micolon after divum. Here the poet 
describes the zodiac, which is a 
broad belt spreading about five or 
six degrees on each side of the 
ecliptic line, and contains the twelve 
constellations or signs. They are 
Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, 
Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, 
Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces. The 
ecliptic line cuts the equinoctial ob- 
liquely in two opposite points. 



whence the poet calls the zodiac 
obliquus signorum ordo. It traverses 
the whole torrid zone, but neither 
of the temperate zones ; so that per 
ambas must mean between, not 
through them . Thus presently after, 
speaking of the Dragon, he says it 
twines per duas Arctos: now that 
constellation cannot be said to twine 
through the two Bears, but between 
them. The zodiac is the annual 
path of the sun, through each sign 
of which he passes in about the 
space of a month. He is said to be 
in one of those signs, when he ap- 
pears in that part of the heavens, 
where those stars are, of which the 
sign is composed. 

240. Mundus ut ad Scythiam, t^c] 
He speaks here of the two poles of 
the world. He says the north pole 
is elevated, because that only is visi- 
ble in these parts of the earth : and 
for the same reason he speaks of the 
south pole, as being depressed. 
These lines seem to be an imitation 
of Aratus : 

'AXX' fih otiK Wio^rresj o V avrios IkSo- 

aat 

"A^»roi ol/xa r^o^oeacrt, to ^h xaXiovren 

The ancient Scythia was the most 
northern part of the known world, 
being what we now call Muscovy, 
and the Muscovite Tartary. Lybia 
i2 



CO 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



so it is depressed at the south 
ofLybia. One pole alwa> sap- 
pears above our heads; but 
(he other dark Styx, and the 
infernal gliosis see under their 
feet. At the north pole the 
vast Dragon twines with a 
winding course, and after the 
manner of a river, between 
the two Bears, the Bears that 
fear to be dipped in the wa- 
ters of the ocean. At the south 
pole, either, as some report, 
still night dwells in eternal 
silence, 



Consurgit, premitur Lybiae devexus in austros. 
Hie vertex semper nobis sublimis ; at ilium 
Sub pedibus Styx atra videt, Manesque pro- 
fundi. 
Maximus hie flexu sinuoso elabitur Anguis 
Circum, perque duas in morem fluminis Arctos, 
Aretos Oeeani metuentes aequore tingi. 246 

Illic, ut perhibent, aut intempesta silet nox 



is an ancient name for Africa, the 
southern part of which reaches to 
the tropic of Capricorn. 

244. Maxirmis hie fiexu, c^'c] 
These lines also are an imitation of 
Aratus : 

Taj ^£ "hi afie,<pori^uSf o'ln "aorafAolo iiTop- 

afji,<pi T layug 
Mv^tos, at B' «!» 01 ff^iigTis ixuTi^B^g 

(pvovTUt 
"A^xToi, xvaviov zre(pvXet<yftiteu axiavoTo. 

This description of the Dragon 
winding, like a river, at the north 
pole, between the two Bears, is no 
less just than beautiful. One of the 
Arundehan manuscripts has lahitur. 
246. Arctos Oeeani metuentes ce- 
quore tingi.'] " I beg leave," says 

Mr. B , " to suppose, that this 

*' line cannot be'of Virgil's writing, 
*' but that it is slid into the text from 
" the marginal note of some gram- 
'^ marian or other. There is such 
" a jingle betwixt oeeani and tingi, 
" and the sense, if any sense at all 
" can be affixed to it, is so forced, 
*' that it seems to me not in any 
'^ wise to belong to the author of 
" the Georgicks." For my part, I 
see no reason to question the au- 
thority of this verse : nor is it left 
out in any manuscript, or printed 
edition, that I have seen. Virgil, 
no doubt, had in his view Homer's 
description of the northern constel- 



lations on the shield of Achilles ; to 
which he has more than once al- 
luded : 

nXnia^a? S-', iid^as rt, rori ffB^ives'n^'iuvh. 
"A^xTov 3-\ 7j» xai afjM^av WixXntrif *«- 

"Ht' ahrou ^^i^traij xai <r 'n^iuna ^oxivit, 
o'ln ^ aft/M^'os lr< y.oirguf uxiavcTo. 

The Pleiads, Hyads, with the northern 

team •, 
And great Orion's more refulgent beam ; 
To which, around the axle of the sky. 
The bear revolving, points his golden 

eye, 
Still shines exalted on th' jEtherial plain, 
Nor bathes his blazing forehead in the 

main. 

Mr. Pope. 

One of the Arundelian manuscripts 
has mergi for tingi. 

247. Illic, ut perhibent, aut m- 
tempesta silet nox.l Virgil alludes, 
in this passage, to that doctrine of 
Epicurus, that the sun might pos- 
sibly revive and perish every day, 
if which opinion be admitted, there 
can be no Antipodes, nor can the 
sun go to hght another hemisphere. 
This opinion of Epicurus is to be 
found in his epistle to Pythocles, 
preserved by Diogenes Laertius; 

'Ek T6?V TTggi ^vartci? /ii^Xloig hlKlVflif, 
eiVe6T0>^eig kX( dv<ntg ijXiov Kxi (TiXKiftig xXi 

yivis-^Xi dvvxT^xi Kccl KXTX aOka-iy. The 
reader cannot but observehow justly 
this verse expresses the still silence 
bf the night. Mr. B has been 



GEORG. LIB I 



61 



Semper, et obtenta densantur nocte tenebrae ; 
Aut redit a nobis Aurora, diemque reducit : 
Nosqiie ubi primus equis oriens afflavit anhelis, 
Illic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper. 251 
Hinc tempestates dubio praediscere caelo 



and thickens the gloomy dark- 
ness; or else Aurora returns 
trorn us to them, and brings 
back the day : and when the 
snn first rising breathes on hs 
with his panting horses, there 
bright Vesper lights up the 
late fires. Hence we are able 
to foresee storms in doubtful 
weather ; 



more careful to preserve this beauty, 
than any other of the translators : 

There, as they say, or rests the soft, still 
night. 

249. Aut redit a nobis Aurora.} 
Here he proposes the contrary doc- 
trine : that the sun goes to light an- 
other hemisphere, when he leaves 
our horizon. This is not inconsistent 
with the Epicurean philosophy : for 
we see, in the preceding note, that 
Epicurus proposes the other opinion, 
only as a possibility ; and Lucretius 
mentions both opinions : 

At nox obruit ingenti cah'gine terras, 
Aut ubi de longo cursu Sol extima cseli 
Impulit, atque suos efflavit languidus 

ignes 
Concusses itere, et labefactos aere multo : 
Aut quia sub terras cursum convertere 

cogit 
Vis eadem, supra terras quae pertulit, 

orbem. 

And day may end, and tumble down the 

WCSty 

And sleepy night fly slowly up the east ; 
Because the sun having now performed his 

round, 
And reach' d with weary flames the utmost 

hound 
Of finite heav*n, he there puts out ilte ray. 
Wearied and Uunted all the tedious day 
By hindWmg air^ and thus the flames decay y 
Or else that constant force might make it 

move 
Below the earthy which whirl'd it round 

above. 

Creech. 

250. Primus equis oriens afflavit 
anhelis.'] Some interpret this of the 
morning, as if it referred to Aurora^ 
just mentioned : but the gender of 



primus is a sufficient argument 
against this interpretation. I take 
Sol to be understood ; as it must in 
the fifth ^neid; where we have 
the same words, without any men- 
tion of Aurora : 

Jamque vale: torquet medios nox hu- 

mida cursus, 
Et me saevus equis oriens afflavit anhelis. 

251. Accendit lumina Vesper. '] 
Virgil is commonly understood to 
speak here o^ lighting candles: be- 
cause Vesper, ov the evening star, 
is the forerunner of the night. This 
is so low an idea, that I cannot 
think it ever entered into the mind 
of our poet. To conclude so sub- 
lime a piece of poetry with the 
mention of lighting candles, would 
be a wretched anticlimax. Surely 
Virgil still keeps amongst the hea- 
venly bodies, and as Vesper is the 
first star that appears, he describes 
him poetically, as lighting up the 
rest. In other places this star is 
called Hesperus. 

252. Hinc tempestates, t^c] After 
this beautiful description of the hea- 
vens, the poet adds an account of 
the usefulness of this knowledge to 
husbandmen. 

Hinc.'] One of Dr. Mead's ma- 
nuscripts has hie. 

Tempestates.] See the note on 
ver. 27. 

PrGediscere.~\ Pierius says it is 
prcedicere in the Roman manuscript, 
but he does not approve of it. La 
Cerda however has admitted this 
reading. 



62 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



hence we know tbe lime of 
harvest and tbe season of sow- 
ing; and when it is proper to 
cut the faithless sea with oars ; 
when to draw out the armed 
fleets, or to fell the pine-tree 
in the woods in a proper sea- 
son : nor is it in vain that we 
observe the setting and rising 
of the signs, and the j'ear di- 
vided equally into four differ- 
ent seasons. Whenever the 
winter rains conGne the hus- 
bandman at home, many 
things may be done at leisure, 
which afterwards, when the 
vreather is fair, would be done 
in a hurry. Then the plough, 
man 



Possumus : hinc messisque diem, tempusque se- 

rendi ; 
Et quando infidum remis impellere marmor 
Conveniat ; quando armatas deducere classes, 
Aut tempestivam sylvis evertere pinum. 256 
Nee frustra signorum obitus speculamur et ortus, 
Temporibusque parem diversis quatuor annum. 
Frigidus agricolam siquando continet imber, 
Multa, forent quae mox caelo properanda sereno, 
Maturare datur. Durum procudit arator 261 



253. Messisque diem.] In some 
copies it is mensisque diem ; but the 
best authority seems to be for messis. 

9,5Q. Tempestivam sylvis evertere 
pinum.'] In several of the old ma- 
nuscripts and printed editions we 
find in sylvis; but the leaving out 
of the preposition is more conform- 
able to the style of our poet. 

Dryden has translated these 
words, or when to fell the furzes. He 
must certainly have meant Jirs: 
for Xhe furze, otherwise called gorse, 
and whin, is a prickly shrub, which 
grows commonly on our heathy 
grounds, and bears no sort of re- 
semblance to a fir or pine. There 
is some pretence for translating 
pinus a fir, as Mr. B — has done : 
because that tree which we com- 
monly know under the name of the 
Scotch fir is really a species of 
pine. 

By tempestivam. the poet means 
the proper season for felling timber. 
This season we are told by Cato is 
when the seed is ripe : " Robus, 
*' materies item pro ridica, ubi sol- 
•' stitium fuerit ad brumam semper 
*' tempest! va est. Caetera materies 
" quae semen habet, cum semen 
*' maturum habet, tum tempestiva 
" est." Dr. Trapp has translated 
tempestivam, seasoned. 

Or when in woods to iQliihe seasoned \ime. 



But I believe we never use that 
epithet for timber, which is not yet 
cut down. 

257. Nee frustra, &c.] Here the 
poet urges still farther the usefulness 
of astronomical knowledge. He ob- 
serves, that many works are to be 
performed by the husbandman ; the 
proper time for doing which de- 
pends upon a knowledge of the sea- 
sons. 

259. Frigidus imber.] The poet 
does not seem to mean that these 
works are to be done when any 
sudden shower happens; but when 
the winter season comes on, which 
he had before expressed by brumce 
intractabilis imbrem. 

261. Matiirare.] It is here op- 
posed to properare : maturare signi- 
fies to do a thing at leisure, in a pro- 
per season : but properare signifies 
to do it in a hurry. Virgil's sense 
therefore in this place is, that the 
farmer has time to prepare these 
things in winter; but that if he 
should neglect this opportunity till 
the season of the year calls him out 
to work in the field, he will then be 
so busy, that he cannot have time 
to do them as he ought. Aulus 
Gellius observes, that in his time the 
signification of mature was corruptly 
used for hastily : "^ Mature nunc 
*'^ significat propere et cito, contra 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



63 



Vomeris obtusi dentem : cavat arbore lintres : biurshaV''eV''3:;!X1"!rouS's 

. . . ^ . .^ out of trees; or marks his 

Aut pecori signum, aut numeros impressit acer- cattie, or numbers his sacks. 

y o ' I Some sharoen stakps and twrt- 



VIS. 



Exacuunt alii vallos, furcasque bicornes, 



Some sharpen stakes and two- 
horned forks. 



" ipsius verbi sententiam. Aliud 

" enim est mature quam quod di- 

" citur proper e. Propterea P. Ni- 

'^ gidius homo in omnium bonarum 

'' artium disciplinis egregius, Ma- 

" ture, inquit, est quod neque citius 

" est neque serius: sed medium quid- 

" dam et iemperatum est. Bene atque 

" proprie Nigidius. Nam et in fru- 

" gibus et in pomis matura dicuntur 

** quae neque cruda et immitia sunt, 

'* neque caduca et decocta, sed tern- 

" pore suo adulta maturaque. Quo- 

" niam autem id, quod non segniter 

" fiebat, matiire fieri dicebatur, pro- 

" gressa plurimum verbi significatio 

" est, et non jam quod non segnius, 

'* sed quod festinatius fit, id fieri ma^ 

" ture dicitur, quando ea, quae prae- 

" ter sui temporis modum properata 

*' sunt, hnmaiura verius dicantur. 

" lUud vero Nigidianum rei atque 

" verbi temperamentum divis Au- 

" gustus duobus Grsecis verbis ele- 

" gantissime exprimebat. Namque 

*' et dicere in sermonibus et scribere 

" in epistolis solitum esse aiunt, 

" a-TCiii^i fi^ethiw;. Per quod monebat 

*' ut ad rem agendam simul adhi- 

" beretur et industriae celeritas et 

" diligentiae tarditas, ex quibus duo- 

*' bus contrariis fit maturitas. Vir- 

" gilius quoque, siquis animum at- 

" tendat, duo ista verba properare 

" et maturare tanquam plane con- 

" traria scitissime separavit in hisce 

" versibus : Frigidus agricolam, S^c. 

" elegantissime ista duo verba di- 

" visit. Namque in praeparatu rei 

*' rusticae per tempestates pluvias, 

" quoniam otium est, maturari pot- 

" est : per serenas, quoniam terapus 

" instat, properari necessura est." 

262. Cavat arbore lintres.'] Most 



of the commentators think lintres 
means boats in this place; which 
were anciently scooped out of trees. 
Thus Virgil speaks of hollowed al- 
ders, when he mentions the begin- 
ning of navigation : 

Tunc alnos primum fluvii sensere ca- 
vatas. 

But I believe navigation was so far 
improved in Virgil's time, that the 
Romans made no use of hollow trees 
for boats. Therefore I rather think 
he meant troughs, which seem more 
immediately to concern the farmer 
than boats. 

263. Pecori signum.'] The way 
of marking the cattle was by burn- 
ing them ; as we find in the third 
Georgick : 

Post partum cura in vitulos traducitur 

omnis : 
Continuoque notas, et nomina gentis 

inurunt. 

Ntimeros impressit acervis.] I take 
the poet to mean numbering the 
sacks of corn ; perhaps in order to 
signify the quantity contained in 
each. For I cannot understand how 
the heaps of corn can be said to be 
imprinted with numbers. Dr. 
Trapp, in his note on this passage, 
says, " Sacks, or if you please 
*' stacks. Acervis. It is uncertain 
'* whether he speaks of corn threshed 
*' or unthreshed : of hams, or of 
" granaries.*' 

264. Exacuunt alii vallos.] Servius 
interprets vallos the banks and 
ditches which are made round vine- 
yards : " Fossas et muros de terra 
" factos, et glebis, qui tiunt in cir- 
*' cuitu cohortium et vinearum." 
He takes exacuunt to mean the 



64 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and prepare willow twigs to 
bind the bending vine. Now 
Uie li^ht basket is woven will) 
bramble twigs. Now parch 
your corn with fire, now giind 
It with stones. Nay, even on 
sacred days, divine and human 
Jaws permit some works to be 
done. No strictness ever for- 
bad to drain the fields. 



Atquc Amerina parant lentas retinacula viti. ^65 
Nunc facilis rubea texatur fiscina virga : 
Nunc torrete igni fruges, nunc frangite saxo. 
Quippe etiam festis qusedam exercere diebus 
Fas et jura sinunt. Rivos deducere nulla 



cleaning of the ditches, and repair- 
ing of the banks. But this inter- 
pretation seems to be greatly 
forced: and besides it is no work 
for wet weather : nor is it possible 
to be done within doors, which 
Virgil plainly expresses : 

Frigidus agricolam si quando coniinet 
imber. 

Valli certainly mean the stakes or 
poles, which serve to prop the 
vines. 

265. Amerifia retinacula.'] Ameria 
is the name of a city in Italy where 
the best willows were said to grow 
in abundance. It is a sort of willow 
with slender red twigs, according 
to Columella; '' Nee refert cujus 
" generis vimen seras, dura sit len- 
'' tissimum : putant tamen tria esse 
'' genera praecipue salicis, Graecee, 
*' Gallicee, Sabinse, quam plurimi 
" vocant Araerinam. Groeca flavi 
" coloris est, Gallica obsoleti purpu- 
*' rei, et tenuissirai viminis. Ame- 
" rina salix gracilem virgam, et ru- 
" tilam gerit." 

9.QQ. Rubea virga.'] Rubi was the 
name of a city of Apulia. It is 
mentioned by Horace : 

Inde Rubos fessi pervenimus. 

Servius thinks that by Rubea virga 
is meant such twigs as grow about 
Rubi. Indeed it seems natural for 
the poet to mention these two cities 
of Italy, Ameria and Rubi, just to- 
gether. But at the same time it 
must be confessed, that Rubi is not 
any where, that I can find, cele- 
brated for willows or osiers. I ra- 



ther believe the poet meant twigs 
of brambles, because the bramble, 
rubus, is mentioned by Pliny 
amongst the bending twigs, which 
are fit for such purposes as Virgil is 
here speaking of. " Siquidem et 
'' genistae, et populi, et ulmi, et san- 
'' guinei frutices, et betulae, et ha- 
*' rundo fissa, et harundinum folia, 
*' ut in Liguria, et vitis ipsa, reci- 
'' sisque aculeis, Rubi alligajit, et 
" intorta corylus." Mr. B — is the 
only translator, who has followed 
this last interpretation : 

Now with the bramble weave the baskets 
round. 

267. Nu?ic torreie igni J'ruges.'J^ 
He speaks here not of baking, but 
of parching the corn, in order to 
grind it. We have the same ex- 
pression in the first .^neid : 



-Frugesque receptas 



Et lorrere parant flammis, et frangere 
saxo. 

268. Quippe eliam, &c.] Here 
the poet enumerates those works 
which are lawful to be done on festi- 
val days. 

269. Rivos deducere.'^ Most of the 
translators have erred about this 
passage. May translates it. To dig 
a dyke : Dryden, to jioat the mea- 
dows : Mr. B , 

To lead the torrent o'er the thirsty 
plain. 

To dig ditches, or to float the 
ground, was not allowed by the 
high priests to be done on holydays. 
But to drain and cleanse ditches 
was lawful, as we find in Columella : 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



G5 



llclligio vctuit, segeti praetcndere scpem, S70 
Iiisidias avibus moliri, incendere vepres, 
Balantumque gregem fluvio mersare salul)ri. 
Saepe oleo tardi costas agitator aselli 
Vilibus aut oncrat pomis; lapidemque reyertens 
Incusum, aut atrae rnassam picis urbe reportat. 
Ipsa dies alios alio dedit ordine Luna 276 

Felices operum. Quintamfuge: pallidus Orcus, 
Eunienidesque satae : turn partu terra Defando 



(o (krciid the corn with a 
Jiedge, to lay snares tor bir-ds, 
to tire Ihe tliorns, and to dip 
the bleating flock in the 
wholesome river. Thc<lriver 
also of the slow-paced ass 
often loads liis ribs with oil 
or common fruit ; and when 
he returns from the city, 
brings back with him an in- 
denied millstone, or a mass of 
black pitch. The very moon 
has given some days in dif- 
fcrent des^rees lucky for work. 
Avoid the fifth : pale Orcus 
and the Furies were born on 
that day: then did the earth 
with a horrid labour 



" Feriis autem ritus majorum etiam 
*' ilia permittit. — Piscinas, lacus, 
'' fossas veteres tergere, etpurgare." 
And indeed the true meaning of 
iivos deducere is to drain : 



Quique palndis 



CoUectum humorein hihula deducit arena. 
For floating is called inducere: 

Deinde satis fluvium imlucit rivosque 
sequentes. 

See verse 106, and 113, of this 
Georgick. Dr. Trapp has justly 
translated these words; '' To drain 
" the fields." 

^TiO. Segeti prcetendere sepem."] 
Coluraella differs from Virgil, in 
this particular: -' Quanquam Pon- 
" tifices negent segetem feriis sepiri 
" debere." 

272. Balantumqtie gregem Jluvio 
mersare salubri.'] Columella ob- 
serves, upon this passage, that it 
was unlawful to wash the sheep on 
holy days, for the sake of the wool : 
but that it was allowed to wash 
them, to cure them of their diseases. 
Hence Virgil mentions the whole- 
some river, to shew that he meant 
it by way of medicine : " Vetant 
" quoque lanarum causa lavari oves, 
" nisi propter medicinam. Virgi- 
" lius, quod liceat feriis flumine 
" abluere gregem, praecepit, et id- 
" circo adjecit,^?^yzo mersare salubri. 
" Sunt enim vitia, quorum causa 



" pecus utile sit lavare." Balantum 
gregem is here used for sheep, with 
great propriety : for it is observable 
that sheep make a great bleating, 
when they are washed. 

274. Vilibus pomis.'] Vilis signi- 
fies common, mean, or cheap. Po- 
miim is used by the ancients not only 
for apples, but for all esculent fruits. 
Fruit is used by botanists to signify 
the seeds of any plant, with their 
covering : but in common accepta- 
tion it agrees exactly with what the 
ancients meant by Pomum. See my 
First Lecture of a Course of Botany, 
page 19, 20, 21. 

Lapidem incusum.'] This Servius 
interprets a stone cut with teeth, 
for a hand-mill to grind corn. The 
King's and the Bodleian manuscript, 
and some of the old printed editions 
have incussum. 

270*. Ipsa dies, &;c.] Now the 
poet gives an account of those days, 
which were reckoned lucky and 
unlucky by the ancients. 

277. Quiniam fuge.] The fifth 
day is set down as unlucky by 
Hesiod: 

nifi'Trets V l^aXicta-^di, l^it ^uXi-prat rt 

xa) aivai. 
'Ev zfift^TT'/^] ya^ <pccffiv 'Fi^ivvvas af>c(pi<ro- 

Xivtiv, 

'O^KOV TlVVVfiiVCtS, 70'J "E^IS TiXi ZTTifA 
l7flbgZ0t$, 

278. Tiim.] One of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts has ci^w. 

K 



66 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



?ui"^aSr\?r''c'r KtJS Cocumque lapetumque creat, saevumque Ty- 

and the brethren who con- , 

phoea, 
Et conjuratos caelum rescindere fratres. 280 
Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam 
Scilicet, atque Ossse frondosum involvere Olym- 

pum : 
Ter pater extructos disjecit fulmine montes. 



spired to destroy heaven. 
Ihrice truly did they en- 
dcavonr to lay ossa npon 
Pelion, and to roll tiie sl\ady 
Olynipns upon ossa: thrice 
did Jupiter scatter asunder 
the heaped mountains vvWh 
his thunderbolt. 



27.9. Coeumque, lapeiumque creat, 
savumque TyphotaJ] These are said 
also by Hesiod to be the sons of 
the earth. Virgil imitates the Greek 
poet in mentioning Coeus and lape- 
tus without any epithet. 

To» <rg. 

But he bestows the epithet of sccvus 
on Typhoeus : and indeed Hesiod 
gives a terrible description of this 
giant. 

281. Ter sunt conati imponere Pe- 
lio Ossam.'j The fable of the war of 
the giants against the gods is well 
known. Homer mentions this heap- 
ing up of mountains on mountains, 
but he differs from Virgil in placing 
them: 

"Offffav It' OvXvfi^eu fiif/,affav fif/,t», avrdg- 
n^Xtov etvotrtipvkkov, iV ovgxvoi ufi^arof iln. 



Heav'd on 
stood ; 
On Ossa Pelion nods with 



Olympus tott'ring Ossa 



his wood. 

Mr. Pope. 

Olympus seems the fittest for the 
foundation, being the biggest of the 
three mountains. Longinus brings 
these verses of Homer, as an in- 
stance of the sublime, and observes, 
that the poet, not content with 
barely mentioning this attempt of 
the giants, immediately adds that 
they had almost effected what they 
designed : K«/ vy xev l^iTiXta-foiv. But, 
with all due submission to that ex- 
cellent critic, I think the sublimity 
of this passage is rather diminished 



than augmented by the following 
line : 

Kai vu xiv l^iirekiffffiev tl n(ins fi-irgov 'Ixevro. 

" They would have brought to pass 
" what they designed, if they had 
** arrived to their full strength.'* 
Surely what idea soever this gives 
of the strength of the giants, it di- 
minishes the power of Jupiter and 
the rest of the gods, who with so 
much difficulty subdued a few boys, 
who had not yet arrived to their 
full strength. Virgil has enlarged 
the idea of Homer, by saying that 
the giants made this attempt three 
times before they could be subdued. 
The labour of the giants in heaping 
mountain upon raoimtain is very 
beautifully expressed in the numbers 
of this verse : 

Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam. 

It is impossible to read it without 
a pause. 

283. Disjecit.'] Pierius says it is 
dejecit in the Roman manuscript. 
The same reading is in the Cam- 
bridge, the Arundelian, and one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts. Virgil has 
used dejicit in this Georgick : 

llle flagranti 

Aut Atho, aut Rhodopen, aut alta Ce- 

raunia telo 
Dejicit. 

But there he is speaking of single 
mountains. Disjecit seems more 
proper in this place, to express the 
scattering asunder of these moun- 
tains. And we find in Strabo, that 



GEORG LIB. I. 



67 



Septima post decimam felix et ponere vitem, 
Et prcnsos domitare boves, et licia telae 285 
Addcre : nona fugae melior, contraria furtis. 
Multa adeo gelida melius se nocte dedere, 
Aut cum sole novo terras irrorat Eous. 



i'lii: »cv«nloaiUi is lucky to 
plant the vine, and to tame 
oxen, and to bt;t;iu to weave. 
The ninth is biHter tor flight, 
but adverse to theft. Many 
things also may be done bet- 
ter in the cool ni<;ht, or when 
the iHOrning bedews tlie e.utli 
at sun-rising. 



Ossa was really thought to have 
been torn from Olympus : 'Xxo ^l 
riitrfiar ^KyfMCT6g ytiofCivov {tx vvv kx- 
Xovf^ivx Tifi-m) KXt Tiii>"0(rcrxv XTfoa-^t- 

^o»T«s ccTfo Toy 'OXvfATFcv. Thls might 
give the poets room to feign that 
this violence was committed at the 
time of the war between the gods 
and the giants. 

284. Seplima post deciynam.] Ser- 
vius mentions three different inter- 
pretations of these words: 1. The 
seventeenth is lucky: 2. the seventh 
is lucky, but not so lucky as the 
tenth: 3. the foiu-teenth is lucky, 
that is the seventh doubled, which 
comes after the tenth. This last is 
so forced an interpretation, that I 
cannot be persuaded that Virgil 
could mean any thing so obscure. 
It must however be confessed that 
Hesiod has set down the fourteenth 
day as lucky for taming cattle : 

(oovs, 
Kat xvva, Kccg^^agji^ovra., kcu oh^tias <ra- 

The last words agree with prensos 
domilare. The second interpreta- 
tion is generally received : and in- 
deed Hesiod says the seventh and 
the tenth days are both lucky : 

Tl^avov £>'/), TiT^oii Ti, X.OU k^ofjcyi^ h^ov 

and 

But he no where says that the se- 
venth is inferior to the tenth ; nor 
does he mention either of them as 



fortunate for any part of husbandry. 
I prefer the first interpretation, be- 
cause it seems the most plain. He- 
siod allows it also to be one of the 
lucky days : 

Ey fid,X' oTi^nuovra i'uroo^aXof h aXu^ 
BccXXu». iiXoTOftov rt ra.ft.UM ^xXafi-nix 

N»)ia T£ %vXa vfoXXa^ ra r u^fjcivce. vrvtrt 
■ar'iXovrai. 

Et."] One of the Arundelian ma- 
nuscripts has est. Pierius says it is 
est in the Lombard manuscript, but 
it is altered from et with a different 
hand. 

Vitem.] Pierius says it is vites in 
the Lombard manuscript. It is the 
same in the King's and both Dr, 
Mead's manuscripts, and in several 
printed editions. 

287. Midta adeo, ^-c] The poet 
proceeds to mention what sort of 
works are to be done in the night, 
both in winter and summer. 

Gelida melius.'] Thus it is in the 
Medicean and other ancient manu- 
scripts, according to Pierius: and 
in all the manuscripts, which I have 
collated, except one of Dr. Mead's. 
Heinsius, La Cerda, Ruasus, and 
most of the editors have gelida me- 
lius. In some few editions it is 
meliits gelida. 

288. Aid.] Pierius says it is vet 
in some ancient manuscripts : but 
that most copies liave aid. One of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts also has re/. 

Irrorat.'] In one of the Arunde- 
lian manuscripts it is irrigal. 

Eous.] Servius and most of the 
commentators interpret this the 
MGrning Star. Some take it to 
K 2 



68 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



By nifrht the iigUi stubble, 
by night the pnrcbed mea- 
dows are better cut: tlie 
clammy riew is never known 
to fail" in the night. Some 
sit np late by the light of a 
winter fire, and point torches 
with a sharp knife: whilst 
their wives, easing their long 
labour with singing, ran 
through the loom with the 
rattling reed, or boil away 
the moisture of the sweet 
must over the fire, and scum 
with leaves the wave of the 
trembling kettle. But red- 
dened Ceres is cut down in 
the heat of noon. 



Nocte leves melius stipulae, nocte arida prata 
Tondentur: nocteslentus non deficit humor. 290 
Et quidam seros hyberni ad luminis ignes 
Pervigilat, ferroque faces inspicat acuto. 
Interea longum cantu solata laborem 
Arguto conjux percurrit pectine telas : 
Aut dulcis musti Vulcano decoquit humorem, 
Et foliis undam trepidi despumat aheni. 296 
At rubicunda Ceres medio succiditur aestu. 



mean one of the horses of the sun 
of that name. He is mentioned by 
Ovid: 

Interea volucres Pyroeis, et Eous, et 

.^thon, 
Solis equi, quartusque Phlegon. 

289. Node leves melius slipulce.'] 
Heinsius is almost singular, in print- 
ing the words in this order. Pie- 
rius however observes that the same 
disposition is in all the ancient ma- 
nuscripts which he had seen : and 
that it is more elegant than the 
common reading. 

Nocte arida prata tondentur.'] 
Pliny also observes that a dewy 
night is fittest for mowing : " Noc- 
" tibus roscidis secari melius." 

290 Nodes.] In some manu- 
scripts it is nodis : which may be 
either the genitive case singular, 
or the accusative plural. Pierius 
proves it is the accusative plural, 
from a passage in Arusianus Mes- 
sus, de Eloculionibiis Firgilii: where, 
observing that dejicit illam rem is an 
elegant expression, he quotes the 
authority of Virgil, who wrote Noc- 
tes lenlus non de/idt humor. 

292. Faces inspicat,] The torches 
of the ancients were sticks cut to a 
point. 

295. Dulcis musti Vulcano deco- 
quit humorem.'] Must is the new 
wine before it is fermented. We 
find in Columella, that it was usual 



to boil some of the must till a fourth 
part, or a third, or even sometimes 
half was evaporated. This Virgil 
expresses by decoquit humorem. 
The use of this boiled must is to 
put into some sorts of wine to make 
them keep. Columella is very co- 
pious on this subject, in lib. xii. 
cap. 19, 20, 21. He recommends 
the sweetest must for this purpose : 
thus dulcis is no idle epithet to 
musti in this passage. 

La Cerda observes that Vulcan is 
never used by Virgil for fire ; but 
when he would express a large fire. 
This is cei*tain, that Columella di- 
rects the fire to be gradually in- 
creased to a considerable heat. 

296. Undam trepidi aheni.] The 
wave of the trembling kettle is a 
poetical expression ; the boiling of a 
pot resembling the waves of the sea. 
Pierius says it is trepidis despumat 
aenis in the Roman manuscript, and 
trepidi in the Medicean and some 
other manuscripts. The Cambridge 
manuscript has trepidi; in the other 
manuscripts which I have consulted 
it is tepidi. Servius, Heinsius, La 
Cerda, Masvicius, and several good 
editors read trepidi. Ruaeus and 
many others prefer tepidi. 

297. At rubicunda Ceres, ^x.] 
From the mention of works to be 
done in the night, he passes to those 
which are to be done in the day 
time, both in summer and winter : 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



69 



Et medio tostas aestu tcrit area frugcs. 



anr) the roasted corn is thresh- 
ed ill the heat of noon. Plough 

Nudus ara, sere nudus: hyems ignava colono. Tens 'a fh^Voue^Sfe foMUc 

husbandman. 



and enlarges upon the enjoyments 
of husbandmen in the winter sea- 
son : 

By ruhictinda Ceres the poet 
means the standing corn, which is 
of a reddish yellow, or golden co- 
lour, when ripe. 

Sticciditur.'] Mr. B — would fain 
read succi?2giiur. " Several copies," 
says he, " have succinditur, but it is 
" a very improper expression to say 
'' corn is hewed down ; but Ceres 
" represented by a sheaf of corn is 
^' very poetically said to be girt or 
" bound." In consequence of this 
criticism, he translates this line 
thus: 

But bound is Ceres at the noon of heat. 

I do not find any other authority 
than this gentleman's conjecture, 
for reading siiccingitur. All the 
manuscripts and printed copies 
which I have seen have succiditur, 
which signifies is cut down. The 
participle of this verb is applied by 
Virgil, in the ninth ^^Eneid, to a 
flower cut down by a plough : 

Purpureus veluti cum flos succisus aratro 
Languescit moriens. 

Cmlo and its compounds are fre- 
quently applied by Columella to 
the cutting down of hay and corn. 
The title of the nineteenth chapter 
of his second book is Quemadmodum 
succisum fcenum Iractari et condi 
deheat. In that chapter we find 
cum fcenum cecidimus. In the 
twenty-first chapter, which treats 
of harvest, we find si iempestive 
decisa sint: and sin autem spicce 
tantummodo recisae sunt. 

298. Et medio tostas cestu terit 
area fruges.'] Thus Columella: 
" Quod si falcibus seges cum parte 
" culmi demessa sit, protinus in 



'* acervum, vel in nubilarium con- 
" geritur, et suhinde oppor I un is soli- 
'' bus torrefacta proteritur." 

I make use of the word thresh in 
my translation, as being most fami- 
liar to the English reader : though 
it is certain that the Romans seldom 
made use of a flail or stick to beat 
out their corn. I have already de- 
scribed the trihulum in the note on 
ver. 164. Sometimes they per- 
formed it by turning cattle into the 
floor, to tread the corn out with 
their feet. Varro, immediately 
after his description of the tribulum, 
adds : " Apud alios exteritur grege 
" jumentorum inacto, et ibi agitato 
" perticis, quod ungulis e spica ex- 
" teruntur grana." Columella men- 
tions all these ways, of threshing, 
treading, and rubbing with the tri- 
hulum. " Sin autem spicas tantum- 
'' modo recisfe sunt, possunt in 
" horreum conferri, et deinde per 
'* hyemem, vel baculis excuti vel 
" exteri pecudibus. At si competit, 
'' ut in area teratur frumentum, 
" nihil dubium est, quin equis 
" melius, quam bubus ea res confi- 
" ciatur, et si pauca juga sunt, adji- 
" cere tribulara et traham possis, 
" quae res utraque culmos facillime 
" comminuit." 

^99' Nudus ara, sere nudus.'] 
Thus Hesiod : 

•Tv/:i.vhv (fTTii^iiVj yu/avov ^l fiours,7\^. 



TofAVOv V afioia'^at. 

By saying these works should be 
performed naked, the poets mean 
that they ought to be done when 
the weather is exceeding hot. Ac- 
cording to Pliny, Cincinnatus was 
found ploughing naked, when the 
dictatorship was brought to him: 
'' Aranti quatuor sua jugera in Va- 
" ticano, quse prata Quintia appel- 



70 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



In cold weather the farmers 
generally enjoy wliat they 
Kave gotten: and rejoicuig 
one with another make mutual 
feasts. The genial winter in- 
vites them, and dissolves their 
cares. As when the ladeu ships 
have just reached the port, 
and the joyful mariners have 
crowned' their sterns. But yet 
then is the season to gather 
acorns, and bay berries, and 
bloody myrtle berries. 



Frigoribus parto agricobe plermnque fruuntur, 
Mutuaque inter se laeti convivia curant. 301 
Invitat genialis hyems, curasque resolvit : 
Ceu pressse cum jam portum tetigere carinae, 
Puppibus et laeti nautae imposuere coronas. 
Sed tamen et quernas glandes turn stringere 
tempus, 305 

Et lauri baccas, oleamque, cruentaque myrta. 



** lantur, Cincinnato viator attulit 
*'■ dictaturam,etquidem, ut traditiir, 
^' nudo, plenoque pulveris etiamnum 
^' ore, Cui viator, vela corpus, in- 
*' quit, ut proferam Senatus Popu- 
'* lique Romani mandata." 

Colono.'] Pierius says that in the 
Medicean copy it is colono est. 

304. Puppibus et Iwii nauice impo- 
suere coronasr\ This whole line is 
repeated in the fourth iEneid, ver. 
418. 

305. Quernas glandes.'^ Glans 
seems to have been used by the Ro- 
mans in the same sense that we use 
Mast. Thus the fruit of the beech 
is called ghms; " Fagi glans nuclei 
*' similis," says Pliny. But strictly 
speaking it means only such fruits 
as contain only one seed, which is 
covered at the lower part with a 
husk, and is naked at the upper 
part : thus the fruit of an oak, which 
we commonly call an acorn, is pro- 
perly a glans. " Glandem," says 
Pliny, *' quse proprie intelligitur, 
" ferunt robur, quercus, esculus, 
*' cerrus, ilex, suber." 

Stringere.~\ This word signifies 
to gather with the hand: thus we 
find in the ninth Eclogue ; 

■ ■■ Hie ubi densas 
Agricolae stHngunt frondes. 

306. Lauri haccasr\ Translators 
frequently confound the laurel and 
the bay ; as if they were the same 
tree, and what the Romans called 
Laurels. Our laurel was hardly 
known in Europe, till the latter end 



of the sixteenth century j about 
which time it seems to have been 
brought from Trebizond to Constan- 
tinople, and from thence into most 
parts of Europe. The laurel has 
no fine smell, which is a property 
ascribed to the Laurus, by our poet 
in the second Eclogue : 

Et vos, o Lauri, carpatn, et te proxime, 

myrte. 
Sic positae, quotiium suaves miscetis 

odores : 

and in the sixth iEneid : 
Odoratum Lauri nemus. 

Nor is the laurel remarkable for 
crackling m the fire: of which 
there is abundant mention with re- 
gard to the Laurus: Thus Lucre- 
tius : 

Aridior porro si nubes accipit ignem, 
Uritur ingenti sonitu succensa repente: 
Lauricomns ut si per monies flamma 

vagetur, 
Turbine ventorum comburens impete 

magno. 
Nee res ulla magis, quam Phoebi Del- 

phica Laurus 
Terribili sonitu flamma crepitante cre- 

matur. 

But if tJie cloud bs dry^ and thunder fall^ 
Rises a crackling blaze, and spreads o'er 

all; 
As xohen fierce fires, press' d on In/ teirtds, 

do seize 
Our laurel groves, and waste the virgin 

trees ; 
The leaves all crackle ; she tluit fled the 

chace 
Of Phtebm' love, still flics the flames' 

embrace. 

CntECH. 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



71 



Turn gruibus pedicas et retia ponere cervis, 
Auritosque sequi lepores; turn figere damas, 
Stuppea torquentem Balearis verbera fundae, 
Cum nix altajacetjglaciemcumfluminatrudunt. 
Quid tempestates autumni, et sidera dicam? 311 
Atque ubi jam breviorque dies, et mollior aestas, 



Then is the season to lay 
snares for cranes, and nets 
for stags, and to pursue the 
long eared hares: then is the 
season for the Balearic slinger 
to pierce the does, when the 
snow lies deep, when the 
rivers roll down the ice. Why 
should 1 speak of the storms 
aud constellailions of atitiunu. 



These characters agree very well 
with the bay-tree, which seems to 
be most certainly the Laurus of the 
ancients; and is at this time fre- 
quent in the woods and hedges in 
Italy. The first discoverers of the 
laurel gave it the name of Lauro- 
cerasus, because it has a leaf some- 
thing like a bay, and a fruit like a 
cherry. 

Cruentaque rnyria.'] The myrtle 
berries are here called cruenta, from 
their vinous juice. There are seve- 
ral species of myrtle ; but Ray in- 
forms us that he observed no other 
sort in Italy, than the common 
myrtle, or myrtus commmiis Italica 

as. 

SOg. Balearis.'] The Balearides 
are two islands near Spain, now 
known by the names of Majorca 
and Minorca. The inhabitants of 
these islands are said to have been 
famous for slinging: their name 
being derived from /3«sAAg<y. 

311. Qiiid tempestates auiumni, 
Sfc.'] The poet having barely men- 
tioned the stormy seasons : the latter 
end of spring, and the beginning of 
autumn, proceeds to an elegant de- 
scription of a storm in the time of 
harvest. 

Tempestates autumni, et sidera.'] 
The Autumn was reckoned to begin 
about the twelfth of August, at the 
cosmical setting of Fidicula and the 
Dolphin: which was accounted a 
stormy season, according to Colu- 
mella : " Pridie Idus Augusti fidis 
" occidit mane, et autumnus incipit. 
" . . Idibus Augusti delphini occasus 



" tempestatem significat. Decimo 
" nono Calendas Septembrisejusdera 
" sideris matutinus occasus terape- 
'^ statem significat. Decimo tertio 
♦* Calendas Septembris sol in virgi- 
" nem transitum facit. Hoc et se- 
" quenti die tempestatem significat, 
" interdum et tonat. Hoc eodem 
" die fidis occidit. Decimo Calen- 
" das Septembris ex eodem sidere 
" tempestas plerumque oritur et 
" pluvia." Homer mentions the 
Autumn as a stormy season : 

"HfAciT o-prugivu, on Xa^^orarov ^iu v^mq 
Zivs. 

" — — — When in Autumn Jove his fury 
pour?. 
And earth is loaden with incessant 
show'rs. 

Mr, Pope. 

One of the Arundelian manuscripts 
has frigor a instead of sidera. 

312. Atque ubi jam breviorque 
dies, et mollior cestas.~\ One of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts has 

Atque ubi jam breviorque dies, jam 
mollior aestas, 

which is not amiss. Servius thinks 
the latter end of Autumn is meant: 
but that interpretation will not agree 
with mollior cestas, unless we sup- 
pose cestas to be put poetically for 
warm weather, as it seems to be in 
the second Georgick : 

Prima vel autumni sub frigora, cum ra- 

pidus sol 
Nondum hyemem contingit equis, jam 

praeterit sestas. 



n 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Quas vigilanda viris ? vel cum ruit imbriferum 



and what vigilance is npces- 
sary in men, wlien tlie days 
grow shorter, and tlio heat 
more moderate? or when the 
showery sprinu; conohides, 

Ss*t?e3Hn ^fe fieidsyand\v""^^^ Spicea jam campis cum messis inhorruit, et cum 



ver : 



313. Vel cum ruit imbriferum 
verJ] One ofDr, Mead's manuscripts 
has et instead of vel. Servius inter- 
prets ruit, prcecipilatur, in fine est. 
The latter end of the spring is about 
the end of April, and beginning of 
May, which is a rainy season, ac- 
cording to Columella : " Decimo 

' quinto Calendas Maias sol in tau- 
' rum transitum facit, pluviam sig- 
^ nificat. Decimo quarto Calendas 
' Maias suculae se vesperi celant, 

* pluviam significat. Undecimo Ca- 
' lendas Maias ver bipartitur, pluvia 
' et nonnunquam grando. Decimo 
' Calendas Maias vergiliae cum sole 
^ oriuntur, africus vel auster, dies 
' humidus. Nono Calendas Maias 
' prima nocte fidicula apparet, tem- 
' pestatem significat. Quarto Ca- 
' lendas Maias auster fere cum plu- 
' via. Tertio Calendas Maias mane 
' capra exoritur, austrinus dies, in- 
^ terdum pluviae .... Quinto Nonas 
' Maias centaurus totus apparet, 

* tempestatem significat. Tertio 
' Nonas Maias idem sidus plu- 
' viam significat. . . . Septimo Idus 
' Maias ^Estatis initium, favonius, 
' aut corus, interdum etiam pluvia." 

Lucretius mentions both Autumn 
and Spring, as stormy seasons : 

Autumnoque magis stellis fulgentibus 

alta 
Concutitur caeli domus undique, totaque 

tellus ; 
Et cum tempora se Veris florentia pan- 

dunt. 

Now Spring and Autumn frequent lliun- 

ders hear ; 
They shake the rising and the dy'mg 

year, 

Creech. 

314. Spicea jam campis, S^c.~\ 
Some understand the poet to speak 



of the ripe corn in this passage. 
But he plainly means the first ap- 
pearance of the ear: this agrees 
with the time mentioned by him, 
which is May: and the next line, 
where he speaks of the milky corn, 
and the green stems, puts it out of 
all question. 

Inhorruit.] Servius interprets this 
intremiscit, in which he is followed 
by Ruaeus. Dr. Trapp adheres to 
this interpretation: 

When the trembling ears 

Wave with the wind. 

He observes upon this passage, that 
^' trembling in animals being the 
*' effect oijear; the word inhorruit 
" is elegantly transferred to com, 
" &c. trembling Avith the wind." 
See the note on segnisque horreret in 
arvis carduus, ver. 151. Virgil has 
used i?ihor7'uit, only in three other 
places in all his works : in neither 
of which he puts it for fear or tre7n- 
bling. In the third and fifth ^neids, 
he uses it to express a horrid dark- 
ness overspreading the sea in a 
storm : 

Ceeruleus supra caput astititimber 

Noctem hyemeraque fei-ens : et inhorruit 
unda tenebris. 

In the tenth ^neid he uses it to 
describe a wild boar erecting his 
bristles : 

Postquara inter retia ventura est, 

Substitit, intremuitque ferox, et inhorruit 
armos. 

Thus I take it in this place to sig- 
nify the bristli?2g of the bearded ears 
of corn 5 as Mr. B — has translated 
it: 

Or when the harvest bristles into cars. 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



Frumenta in viridi stipula lactentia turgent ? 315 
Sa?pe ego cum flavis mcssorem induceret arvis 
Agricola, et fragili jam stringeret hordea culmo. 
Omnia ventorum concurrere proelia vidi, 
Qua? gravidam late segetem ab radicibus imis 
Sublime expulsam eruerent: ita turbine nigro 



the milky com <!w<lls on (he 
green stc-in? often have I 
Keen, wheu llie. Iiusbandinan 
hart broii'^lit the reaper into 
the ycMow fioUls, and was 
reaping the barley with brittle 
stems.all the fury of the winds 
engage, and tear up the lieavy 
coi n by the very roots far and 
near, and toss it on high, just 
as a black whirlwind 



315. Lactentia.'] The Bodleian 
and one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts 
have lactantia. Servius observes 
that lactans signifies that which 
yields milk, lactens that which re- 
ceives milky nourishment. 

3 16. Soepe ego cum flams, S^c.'] 
The meaning of the poet seems to 
be that the storms of Autumn and 
Spring have nothing extraordinary 
in them, being usually expected in 
those seasons. Therefore he chooses 
to enlarge upon those storms which 
he has often seen even in the time 
of harvest : and describes the ter- 
rible effects of them in a very po- 
etical manner. 

317. Fragili jam stringeret hor- 
dea culmo.l Stringere signifies to 
gather with the hand^ as is observed 
in the note on that word, ver. 305. 
Servius seems to take it in thissense. 
But Ruaeus interprets it to bind : 
" Et jam ligaret hordea paleis fra- 
" gilibus." Most of our translators 
implicitly follow this interpretation. 
Dryden translates this verse : 

Ev'n Avhile the reaper fills his greedy 

hands, 
And hinds the golden sheaves in brittle 

hands. 

Thus he takesy;Y7giZi culmo to mean 
the hand of the sheaf. I rather be- 
lieve the poet means the stem or 
straw of the growing barley by cul- 
mus, and uses the eiiithet fragilis to 
express its ripeness j as he adds flu- 
vis to amis in the foregoing verse, 
for the same reason. Mr. B — leaves 
out the brittle straw, and says only, 

And now bound the grain. 



Dr. Trapp follows Dryden : 



•And boicnd 



His sheaves with brittle straw. 

May understood it in the same sense 
which I have given it : 

■When corn was ripe to mow. 
And now in dry, and brittle straw did 
grow. 

318. Concurrere.] It'is consurgere 
in one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, 
and in the Roman manuscript, ac- 
cording to Pierius. But concurrere 
is a better word : and we have the 
authority of Pliny that it is the word 
which Virgil used in this place: 
" Etenim praedicta ratione vento- 
" rum, ne saepius eadem dicantur, 
" transire convenit ad reliqua tem- 
" pestatum praesagia, quoniam et 
" hoc placuisse Virgilio raagnopeie 
'^ video. Siquidem in ipsa messo. 
" saepe concurrere praelia ventorum 
" damnosa iraperitis refert." 

320. Ita turbine nigro, S^^c] This 
no doubt is to be understood as a 
simile. The poet, to magnify the 
storm he is describing, represents it 
as wliirling aloft the heavy corn with 
its ears and roots, just as an ordi- 
nary whirlwind would toss some 
light empty straw. Ruaeus seems 
to take the whirling up of the light 
straw to be a part of Virgil's storm : 
" Quae dissiparent in auras plenam 
" segetem extirpatam radicitus, tarn 
" denso nimbo jactabat procella 
" calamos leves, et stipulas vo- 
" lantes." Dryden follows Ruaeus : 

The heavy harvest from the root is torn, 
And whirl'd aloft the lighter stubble 
borne. 

L 



74 



r. VIRGILII MARONIS 



stmwl "l7/Sg^'sUb1eI Ferret hyems culmumque levem, stipulasque 
volantes. 



often also an immense flood 
of waters falls from the hea- 
vens, and clouds gathered out 



?L{ wiiRiack showers':*X' Saspc etiam immensum cgelo venit agmen aqua- 

lofty sky pours down. 



rum 



Et fcedam glomerant tempestatem imbribus atris 
Collectae ex alto nubes : ruit arduus aether, 



The two following lines are hardly 
intelligible, and have nothing, but 
the word hyems in Virgil, to give 
them any sort of countenance. 

With such a force the flying rack is 

driv'n, 
And such a winter wears the face of 

heav'n. 

Dr. Trapp translates it as if by ita 
turbine was meant tall turbine : 

With such a gust a hurricane would 

drive 
Light, flying stubble. 

324. Collectce ex alto nubes.] Ser- 
vius thinks that by ex alto is meant 
from the north; because that pole 
appears elevated to us. But, as Ru- 
aeus justly observes, storms gene- 
rally come from the south ; and the 
poet a few lines afterwards says 
ingeminant austri. Some take ex 
alto to mean the upper regions of 
the air : of which opinion Dr. 
Trapp seems to be : 



■Gather'd clouds 



Brew the black storm aloft. 

But it seems most probable that 
Virgil means the sea ; out of which 
the clouds may properly be said to 
be gathered. In this sense Dry den 
has translated it : 

And oft whole sheets descend of sluicy 

rain, 
Suck'd by the spongy clouds from off 
the jnain. 

and Mr. B — 

Oft gather from the deep the thick'ning 
clouds. 



Ruit arduus cether.] Servius takes 
this to signify thunder: Tonitribus 
percrepat. I take it rather to be a 
poetical description of the greatness 
of the shower, as if the very sky de- 
scended. Virgil uses ruit, in the 
third ^neid for the going down of 
the sun ; 

Sol ruit interea, et montes umbrantur 
opaci. 

In the fifth ^neid, he uses it for 
the falling of a great shower in a 
tempest : 

■ESTusis imbribus atra 
Tempestas sine more furit : tonitruque 

tremiscunt 
Ardua terrarum, et campi: ruit aethere 

toto 
Turbidus imber aqua, densisque nigerri- 

mus austris. 

Martial uses ccelum ruebat, when he 
is speaking of a very great shower 
of rain : 

Imbribus immodicis cselum nam forte 
ruebat. 

Virgil is thought, in this description 
of a flood, to have had in his mind 
a passage in the sixteenth Iliad : 

llo\y.a.s oi kKitv? tot aTOTftuyoviri ^ec^ai- 
'Es ^ aXec cro^^v^iv* fnyxkee. ffTirx;^oviri 

fiOUffUl 

'E| o^iuv It) xd^' fiivvSu V% <ti %oy at^^u- 

-TTUV. 

From their deep beds he bids the rivers 

rise, 
And opens all the floodgates of the skies : 
Th' impetuous torrents from their hills 

obey, 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



75 



Et pluvia ingenti sata licta, boumque labores 
Diluit: implentur fossae, et cava flumina cre- 
scunt 326 

Cum sonitu, fervetque fretis spirantibus aequor. 
Ipse pater, media nimborum in nocte, corusca 
Fulmina molitur dextra : quo maxima motu 



anil with a vast quantity of 
rain washes away the joyful 
crops, and labours of the oxen : 
the ditches are tilled, and the 
hollow rivers sounding swell, 
and the sea boils with tossing 
waves. Jupiter himself in the 
midst of the thickest darkness 
lances the thunders with his 
liery right hand : with the vio- 
lence of which the whole 



Whole fields are drown'd, and mountains 

swept away ; 
Loud roars the deluge; till it meets the 

main ; 
And trembling man sees all his labours 

vain. 

Mr. Pope. 

In both poets are mentioned the de- 
struction of the fields, and labours 
of husbandry, and at last the deluge 
spending its force upon the sea. 

S9.5. Sata Iceia, boumque labores.'] 
We find the same words in the se- 
cond ^neid, where he alludes to a 
torrent rushing down from the 
mountains : 



.. . Rapidus montano flumine torrens 
Sternit agros, sternit sata Iceta boumque 
labores. 

328. Ipse pater, &c.] The poet 
has already given us the whirlwind, 
the rain, and the deluge, which 
make as terrible description of a 
storm, as perhaps is to be met with 
in any other poet. But to increase 
the horror of his description, he in- 
troduces Jupiter himself lancing his 
thunders, and striking down the 
mountains; the earth trembling, 
the beasts flying, and men struck 
with horror: then the south wind 
redoubles its violence, the rain in- 
creases, and the woods and the 
shores groan with the violence of 
the tempest. 

Nimborum in iiocie,'] Thus Lu- 
cretius : 

Usque adeo tetra nimborum nocte coorta. 

In is wanting in one of the Arunde- 
lian manuscripts. Pierius observed 



the same in some ancient manu- 
scripts 'j but he says it is 7iimborum 
in nocte in the Medicean and most 
other copies ; and prefers that read- 
ing as much more numerous and 
elegant. 

Corusca fulmina molitur dextra.'] 
Servius, and after him some other 
commentators, make corusca agree 
with fulmina. Thus we find in 
Horace : 

Igni corusco nubila dividens. 

Ruseus joins it with dextra. This 
also has a parallel in Horace : 



-Rubente 



Dextera sacras jaculatus arces. 

It appears to me more poetical to 
say that Jupiter lances the thunders 
with his fiery right hand^ than that 
he lances the fiery thunders with his 
right hand. May has translated it 
in this sense : 

In midst of that tempestuous night great 

Jove 
From a bright hand his winged thunder 

throws. 

And Dr. Trapp : 

Great Jove himself, amidst the night of 

clouds. 
Hurls with his red right hand the forky 

fire. 

Dryden seems to follow the other 
interpretation : 

The father of the gods his glory shrowds, 
Involv'd in tempests and a night of 

clouds. 
And from the middle darkness flashing 

out 
By fits he deals his fiery bolts about. 
l2 



76 



R VIRGILII MARONIS 



eai 111 trembles, (he beasfs Me. 
Ikd: I he hearts of men in all 
nations ate sunk with humble 
iear: he casts down "Athos, or 
Rhodope, or the higli Ceraunia 
with his burning bolt; the 
south winds redouble: and the 
sliowcr thickens exceedingly : 
DOW the' woods, and now the 
shores resound with the vast 
wind. 



Terra tremit: fugcre ferae: mortalia corda 330 
Per gentes humilis stravit pavor: ille flagranti 
Aut Atho, aut Rhodopen, aut alta Ceraunia telo 
Dejicit : ingeminant austri, et densissimus imber : 
Nunc nemora ingenti vento, nunc littora plan- 
gunt. 



And Mr. B — — , 

Amidst a night of clouds his gUtt'ring 

fire 
And rattling thunder hurls th* eternal 
sire. 

330. FugerefercB : mortalia corda, 
&c.] So I venture to read it with 
the Cambridge and one of the Arun- 
delian manuscripts. The common 
reading is fugere fercE, et mortalia 
corda, &c. But the making a pause 
at fercB, and leaving out the con- 
junction, seems to me more poe- 
tical. 

Dr. Trapp justly observes that 
fugere being put in the preterper- 
fect tense has a wonderful force: 
* ' We see, says he, the beasts scud- 
" ding away ; and they are gone, 
" and out of sight in a moment." It 
is pity that learned gentleman did 
not preserve the force of this tense 
in his translation. He has not only 
used the present tense, but has di- 
minished the strength and quick- 
ness of the expression, which Virgil 
has made to consist only of two 
words fugere ferce, by adding an 
epithet to beasts, and mentioning 
the place they fly to : 

Savage beasts to coverts fly, 

Dryden has been guilty of the same 
oversight : 

And flying leasts in forests seek abode. 

** The Latin, says Mr. B , is as 

" quick and sudden as their flight. 
" Fugere fercB, they are all vanished 
*' in an instant. But in Mr, 
" Dryden's translation, one would 
"^imagine these creatures were 



" drove out of some inclosed coun- 
" try, and were searching for en- 
" tertainment in the next forest." 

But Mr. B did not observe the 

beauty of the tense ; 



Far shakes the earth: beasts /i/; 

mortal hearts 
Pale fear dejects. 



and 



332. AtJio.'] The King's, the Cam- 
bridge, the Bodleian, one of the 
Arundelian, and both Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts have Athon, the other 
Arundelian manuscript has Alon, 
Pierius observes that it is Athon in 
the Roman, the Medicean, and 
some other ancient manuscripts. 
Servius, Heinsius, La Cerda, Ruaeus, 
and most of the good editors have 
Atho. It is certain that the accu- 
sative case of «5&>5 is generally uBu, 
though sometimes it is u^av. The- 
ocritus has u^a, in a verse of the 
seventh Idyllium, which Virgil is 
thought in this place to have imi- 
tated : 

rosvra. 

Athos is a mountain of Macedonia, 
making a sort of peninsula in the 
Mgean sea, or Archipelago. 

Rhodopen.'] Rhodope is a moun- 
tain of Thrace. 

Alta Ceraunia.'] The Ceratmia 
are some high mountains in Epirus, 
so called because they are frequently 
stricken with thunder : for Ki^xviog 
signifies a thunderbolt. 

323, Densissimus imber.] One of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts has den- 
sissimus eel her. 

334. Plangunt.] Servius reads 



GEOllG. LIB. I. 



77 



Hoc metuens, cneli menses et sydera scrva: 
Frigida Saturni sese quo stella receptet : 
Qiios ignis cseli Cyllenius erret in orbes. 



33/5 '" ♦*''*•■ o' "'•«' <»bservc the 
""'-' monthly signs, and the con- 
stellations: observe whither 
the cold planet of Saturn re- 
tires: into what circles of 
Leaven Mercury wanders. 



plangit, and interprets it resonare 
facit: but he acknowledges that 
others read plangunt. Pierius says 
it is plangit in the Roman and some 
qther very ancient manuscripts; 
and seems to suppose densissimus 
imber to be the nominative case to 
plangit. If this interpretation be 
admitted, we must render the pas- 
sage now under consideration thus : 
" The south winds redouble; and 
" the exceeding thick shower now 
" makes the woods, and now the 
" shores resound." He adds, "that 
" in the Medicean copy plangunt is 
" paraphrased scindunt : thus the 
" verb must agree both with mister 
" and imber.'* But to say either 
that the shower, or the south wind 
and the shower, make the woods and 
shores resound with a great wind, 
seems to me to be a tautology. If 
we were to admit plangit, I should 

rather with Mr. B understand 

Jupiter : though I think he is mis- 
taken in ascribing this interpretation 
to Pierius. Masvicius also has ad- 
mitted plangit : but as plangunt 
seems to be full as good as the other 
reading, and as it is generally re- 
ceived, I have chosen to adhere 
to it. 

335. Hoc metuens] After this 
description of a tempest, the poet 
proposes two methods of avoiding 
such misfortunes : one by a diligent 
observation of the heavens; the 
other by a religious worship of the 
gods, especially of Ceres. 

Cceli menses^ By the months of 
heaven, I take the poet to mean the 
twelve signs of the zodiac, through 
each of which the sun is about a 
month in passing. 

336. Frigida.'] Thus Pliny, *' Sa- 
" turni autem sidus gelidcC ac rigen- 



" tis esse naturae." Saturn may 
well deserve the epithet of cold, its 
orb being at a greater distance from 
the sun than that of any of the 
other planets. 

Receptet.'] Servius commends the 
skill of Virgil in making choice of 
this verb, which he thinks is de- 
signed to express Saturn's returning 
twice to each sign ; " Sane perite 
*' ait receptet, ut ex frequentative 
" verbo nobis ostenderet Saturnum 
" bis ad unumquodque signum re- 
" verti, quod alii planetae minima 
'* faciunt. Solus enim est qui et 
** longius a sole discedat, et bis ad 
" unumquodque signum revertat." 
Pliny has quoted this passage of 
our poet : " Ideo Virgilius erran- 
" tium quoque siderum rationem 
" ediscendam praecipit, admonens 
" observandum frigidae Saturni 
" stellae transitum." 1 cannot 
think Virgil is to be understood to 
mean, that we are to observe what 
part of the zodiac Saturn is in, 
and thereby to predict a storm. 
That planet is almost two years 
and a half in passing through each 
sign : therefore surely we are not 
to expect a continuance of the same 
weather for so long a time. I ra- 
ther think he means that we should 
observe the aspects of the planets 
in general: and mentions Saturn 
and Mercury for the whole number. 
Thus in a former verse he mentions 
Maia, one of the Pleiades, for that 
whole constellation : 

Mulii ante occasum Maiaj cccpere. 

337. Ignis Cyllenius.'] By the 
Cylletnan fire he means Mercury, 
who was said to be born in Cyllene, 
a mountain of Arcadia. 

Erret.] The wandering of a 



78 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



First of all worship the gods, 
and repeat the anniial sacri- 
fices to great Ceres, offering 
upon the joyful tiirf, when 
winter is ended, and spring 
grows mild. Then the lambs 
are fat, and then the wines 
are mellow; then sleep is 
sweet, and the shadesare thick 
on the hills. Let all thy rural 
youths adore Ceres : for her do 
thou mix the honeycomb with 
milk and soft wine ; 



In primis venerare Deos, atqiie annua magnse 
Sacra refer Cereri, loetis operatus in herbis, 339 
Extremae sub casum hyemis, jam vere sereno. 
Turn pingues agni, et turn mollissima vina : 
Turn somni dulces, densaeque in montibus um- 
brae. 
Cuncta tibi Cererem pubes agrestis adoret : 
Gui tu lacte favos, et miti dilue Baccho ; 344 



planet is a very proper expression ; 
the word being derived from 7rA«y>j, 
wandering. 

338. Annua magnce sacra refer 
Cereri.'] The poet here gives a beau- 
tiful description of the Ambarva- 
lioi so called because the victim 
was led round the fields : quod vic- 
tima amhiret arva. . In ver. 345. 
Virgil mentions it being led three 
times round. 

340. Casum.'] All the ancient 
manuscripts which Pieriushad seen, 
except the Medicean, have casu. It 
is casu also in the King's, the Bod- 
leian, and in both Dr. Mead's ma- 
nuscripts. 

341. Turn pingues agni, et turn 
nwllissima vina.] Pierius says that 
all the ancient manuscripts he had 
seen agree in reading pi?igues agni 
et, without a Synalcepha, and that 
some have tunc and others turn. He 
observes also that in the Medicean 
copy it is tunc in this verse, but in 
the next it is Turn somni dulces. 
In one of the Arundelian manu- 
scripts it is Tunc pingues agni turn 
sunt. In one of Dr. Mead's it is 
Turn pingues agni sunt turn. In the 
other it is Tmn pingues agni, et turn : 
which reading is admitted by Hein- 
sius, from whom I seldom deviate. 
The other manuscripts which I 
have collated, and most of the com- 
mon editions, have Tunc agni pin- 
gues et tunc. 

344. Miti dilue Baccho.] Mont- 
faucon quotes this passage, to shew 



that Ceres and Bacchus were wor- 
shipped jointly. '' Virgile marque 
'• aussi le culte des deux dans les 
" Georgiques, oii il parle des trois 
*^ tours qu'on faisoit faire a la victime 
'^ autour des moissons avant que de 
" I'immoler. Cette ceremonie des 
*' trois tours etoit encore observee 
'^ en d'autres saciifices, coramenous 
" verrons plus bas : il met Ceres et 
" Bacchus ensemble, et dit que dans 
" la ceremonie on invoquoit Ceres 
" a haute voix." This learned au- 
thor seems to have viewed the pas- 
sage under our consideration too 
hastily, and to have taken Baccho 
to be put for the name of tlie god, 
and to be the dative case, coupled 
with cuL All the commentators 
agree, and I think it cannot be 
doubted, that Baccho is here put fi- 
guratively for wine, and that it is 
the ablative case, coupled with 
lacte. Nor could that famous an- 
tiquary be easily led into this mis- 
take, if he took Bacchus in this 
place to signify wine, by conclud- 
ing that the sacrifice must be to 
Bacchus, as well as to Ceres, to 
whom wine did not use to be offered, 
as some have imagined. For it is 
plain, from the account which Cato 
gives of the sacrifices before harvest, 
not only that wine was offered to 
Ceres ; but also that Bacchus was 
not one of the deities, to whom they 
sacrificed on that occasion. '' Pri- 
" usquam messim facies, porcam 
" prsecidaneara hoc modo fieri opor- 



GEORG. LIB. I, 



79 



Terque novas circum felix eat hostia fruges, 
Omnis quam chorus, et socii comitentur ovantes; 
Et Cererem clamore vocent in tecta: neque 

ante 
Falcem maturis quisquam supponat aristis, 
Quam Cereri torta redimitus tempora quercu, 
Det motus incompositos, et carmina dicat. 350 
Atque haec ut certis possimus discere signis, 
^stusque, pluviasque, et agentes frigora ventos ; 
Ipse pater statuit, quid menstrua Luna mone- 

ret, 
Quo signo caderent austri : quid saepe videntes 



and let the happy victim be 
led thrice round the new 
fruits, accompanied by the 
whole crowd ofslioutine; com- 
panions; and let them loudly 
invite Ceres under their roofs : 
nor let any one put the sickle 
to the ripe corn, before he has 
crowned his head with wreaths 
of oak, and danced in uncouth 
measures, and sung songs to 
Ceres. And that we may- 
know these things by manifest 
tokens, both heat and rain, 
and cold winds; Jupiter him- 
self has appointed what the 
monthly moon shouid advise, 
what should be a sign of the 
southwinds falling, what 



" tet. Cereri porca praecidanea, 
" porco foemina, priusquam hasce 
" fruges condantur, far, triticum, 
" ordeum, fabam, semen rapicium, 
" thure, vino, Jano, Jovi, Junoni 

" praefato Postea porcam 

" praecidaneam immolato, Ubi exta 
*' prosecta erunt, Jano struem com- 
'' morato, mactatoque item uti prius 
*' obmoveris. Jovi ferctum obmo- 
" veto, mactatoque item uti prius 
" feceras. Item Jano vinum dato, 
'^ et Jovi vinum dato,. ita uti prius 
" datum ob struem obmovendam, 
'^ et ferctum libandum. Postea Ce- 
" reri exta, et vimnn dato." It is 
very certain that Ceres and Bac- 
chus were frequently joined toge- 
ther in the same sacrifice ; but it is 
no less certain, that this passage of 
Virgil is no proof of it. 

349. Torta redimitus tempora 
quercu.'] They wore wreaths of 
oak in honour of Ceres, because 
she first taught mankind the use of 
corn instead of acorns : thus our 
poet : 

■ Vestro si raunere tellus 
Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arista. 

351. Atque hcec, &c.] La Cerda, 
and after him Ruseus, and several 
other commentators, understand the 



poet in this passage to say, there are 
two ways of predicting the weather; 
one by astrology, to which purpose 
he mentions the moon; the other by 
common observation. But he has 
already insisted sufficiently on the 
use of the astrological science, and 
now intends only to shew the hus- 
bandman, how, without science, he 
may be able, in a good measure, to 
foresee the changes of the weather, 
and prevent the misfortunes that 
may attend them. Grimoaldus has 
justly paraphrased the passage 
under our consideration to this pur- 
pose : " Sed quoniam rustici ho- 
" mines, et operarii ex Saturni ca3- 
" terorumque syderum conversioni- 
" bus parum aut nihil possunt col- 
" ligere, ea de tempestatum indiciis, 
" ac praenotionibus dicam, quae sunt 
^' pene ad vulgarera popularemque 
" sensum accommodata, &c." 

352. Pluviasque.] It is pluvias 
without que, in one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts, and in the old Nuren- 
berg edition : Grimoaldus also has 
the same reading. 

353. Moneret.] It is vioveret in 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, and 
in some of the old printed editions. 

354>. Quo siguo.] " Vel quo sub 
'' sidere ; vel melius quo indicia in- 



so 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



the husbandman often observ- 
ing, should keep their lierds 
nearer the stall. When the 
winds are rising, either the 
straits of the sea work and 
begin to swell, and a dry 
crackling is heard in the 
mountains; or the far re- 
sounding shores begin to echo, 
and the murmur of the groves 
to thicken. 



x\gricolae, propius stabulis armcnta tenerent. 
Contlnuo veiitis surgentibus aut freta ponti 356 
Incipiunt agitata tumescere, et aridus altis 
Montibus audiri fragor ; aut resonantia longc 
Littora misceri, et nemorum increbrescere mur- 
mur. 



" telligi posset ventos deficeve," says 
Ruasus. I have already observed 
that Virgil has no astrological mean- 
ing in this passage: whence we 
must prefer with Ruaeus this latter 
interpretation. Dr. Trapp adheres 
to the former : 



■Beneath tchat star 



Auster's rough blasts should fall. 

Caderent.'] La Cerda observes, 
that from the context of Virgil it 
appears, that caderent must signify 
not the ceasing or falling of the 
wind, but its rushing down, to occa- 
sion storms. He quotes a passage of 
Terentius Varro in Sesquiulysse, to 
confirm this interpretation : Adversi 
venti ceciderunt, quod si pergunt di- 
utius mare volvei'e, vereor, &c. I 
cannot find that Virgil has ever used 
cado in this sense : but he has used 
it for the ceasing of the wind in 
the ninth Eclogue : 

Et nunc omne tibi stratum silet aequor, 

et omnes, 
Aspice, ventosi ceciderunt murmuris 

auras. 

Mr. B 's translation agrees with 

La Cerda ; 

^When southern tempests rise. 

Quid.] Both the Arundelian and 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts have 
quod. Servius has the same reading, 
and it is in some of the old printed 
editions. Pierius says it is quid in 
the Roman and Medicean manu- 
scripts. 

356. Contimio ventis, &c.] Here 



the poet gives us the signs of the 
winds rising. 

It is more easy to admire than 
describe the beauty of these lines of 
our poet. The very motion of the 
swelling sea is expressed in these 
words, which seem to rise gradu- 
ally with the waves : 



-Freta ponti 



Incipiunt agitata tumescere. 
We hear the crackling of the moun- 



tarns m 



•Aridus altis 



Montibus audiri fragor : 

and the rustling of the woods in 

— Nemorum increbrescere murmur. 

These beauties are too frequent in 
Virgil to escape the observation of 
most readers : but it would be un- 
pardonable in a commentator not to 
take notice of them. 

The swelling of the sea, the re- 
sounding of the coasts, and the roar- 
ing of the mountains are mentioned 
as prognostics of wind by Aratus, 
whom Virgil has imitated in his 
predictions of the weather : 

IrifjLoi, Vi 701 avifiaio xa) efiet'novira, 6a,yMff<rx 
Tiyy'ia'§u' xa) fJMX^t It* alytakoi (ioiuf 

'Axrai T ilvciXioi, exor iu^tot v^^ntfcreu 
TiyvovreUf xogul^ai ts (aou/iivcu eS^us aix^xi. 

357' Aridus fragor.] Pierius says 
it is orduus in the Roman manu- 
script, Aridus fragor means a dry 
crackling sound, like that of trees, 
when they break. 



GEORG LIB. I. 



SI 



Jam sibi turn a curvis male temperat unda ca- 
rinis, 360 

Cum medio celeres revolant ex aequore mergi, 
Clamoremque ferunt ad littora: cumque ma- 
rinas ' 
In sicco ludunt fulicae : notasque paludes 
Deserit, atque altam supra volat ardea nubem. 
Saepe etiam Stellas, vento impendente, videbis 
Praecipites caelo labi, noctisque per umbram 366 
Flammarum longos a tergo albescere tractus. 



Now can ihe wave hardly for- 
bear the bending ships, when 
the cormorants fly swirHy 
from the mi<ldle of the sea, 
and come crying to the shore : 
and when the sea-coots play 
on the dry land: and the 
heron forsakes the well known 
fens and Hies above the lofty 
clouds. When wind impends, 
yoa shall also otHen see the 
stars fall headlong frotn hea- 
ven, and long tracts of flame 
whiten after them through 
the shade of night. 



360. Jam sibi turn a curvis.'] In 
all the manuscripts I have consulted 
the preposition a is omitted ; as also 
in many printed editions. Fieri us 
says it is a curvis in the Roman ma- 
nuscript. Heinsius retains the pre- 
position: and in the only passage, 
beside this, where Virgil uses iem- 
pero in the same sense, we find a be- 
fore the ablative case : 



Quis talia fando, 



Myrmidonum Dolopumve aut duri miles 

Ulyssei 
Temperet a lachrymis. 

361. Mergir\ What Virgil says 
of the cormorant, Aratus ascribes to 

the l^a^tog. 

K«J y ay 19) %ri^hv or sgwSiOj eh xura, xoar- 

fl.OV 

Kivvfiivou xi B'aXuffffav VTe^ipo^Utr uvi- 

fAOIO. 

Now l^u^m is generally understood 
to mean a heron : but La Cerda in- 
terprets it a mergus or cormorant. 
It is said to be called l^a^ihq quasi 
tiXa^ioi, because it delights in fenny 
places ; but this agrees with the he- 
ron, as well as with the cornorant. 
The same author will have the ut^vtcci 
of Aratus to be ihe fulica of Virgil, 
because they are so called, as he 
says, a fuliginej from their black* 



ness: though the ui^vix is generally 
thought to be the same with the 
mergus. The xsx^po^ of Aratus he 
takes to be the heron. For the 
learned reader's satisfaction I shall 
set down what Aratus has said of 
these sea fowl, immediately after 
the three verses just now quoted: 

Kai -vori xai xi'r(poi, ottot iiihoi croriiuv' 

ruiy 
'AvTia fAiWovruv avifiuv ukn^a, (pigovrat. 
Tlokkaxi S' ay^iaSis vtjcrcraif vt uv uXi ^ivxt 
A'l^vutt ^igffula Tivdffffovreu vrngiyicffiv.. 

365. Scepe etiam siellas, &c.] 
This prognostic of wind taken from 
the stars seeming to fall is borrowed 
also from Aratus : 

Ka/ oia, vvxra fAiXatvav or a^i^ss aiffffuffi 
Ta^'ioiy rot ^ oTtS-iv pvfAoi VToXivxaivciJvren, 
Aitoi^B^ctt ximts avrhv ohov i^^o/iiveio 
Unvfietros. 

Vento impendente.'] One of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts has impellente. 

S66. Umbram.'] So I read it 
with Heinsius. I find the same 
reading in the Cambridge and in 
one of the Arundelian manuscripts. 
In the King's, the Bodleian, the 
other Arundelian, and in both Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts, and in some 
printed editions it is umbras. Pie- 
rius says it is umbram in the Roman 
and Medicean manuscripts; and 
prefers that reading. 



82 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Often shall you see the light 
chaff and falliug leaves fly 
about, or floating feathers 
dance on the surface of the 
water. But when it lightens 
from the quarter of fierce 
Boreas, and when the house 
of EuruB and of Zephyrus 
thunders; then all the coun- 
try swims with full ditches, 
and every mariner on the 
sea gathers up the wet sails. 
Never did a storm of rain fall 
upon any without giving them 
warning: either the airy 
cranes avoided it in the bot- 
tom of the 



Saepe levem paleam et frondes volitare caducas, 
Aut summa nantes in aqua colludere plumas. 
At Boreas de parte trucis cum fulminat, et 

cum 370 

Eurique Zephyrique tonatdomus; omnia plenis 
Rura natant fossis, atque omnis navita ponto 
Humida vela legit. Nunquam imprudentibus 

imber 
Obfuit : aut ilium surgentem vallibus imis 



368. Scepe levem paleam, &c.]] 
What Virgil says of chaff, falling 
leaves, and feathers, Aratus has said 
of the down of thistles. 

'^TifjH lyivovT icvsfiou, xaxptj; aXog owon 

•aoTJkoi 
"Ax^oi i-Ti^kiicoffi, Ta (Jbiv ^d^os, aXXa S' 

OVIffffSJ. 

370. At Borece, &c.] In these 
lines we have the prognostics of 
rain, in which lines the poet plainly 
imitates Aratus: 

AvTO,^ OT l| sS^oio xa) ix vorou a^^dirlwiv, 
"AXXars S* Ix ^s(pu^oio, xai aXXort zfu^ 

Av TOTi r)s TiXayu hi ^ti^n vauTtkos avhp, 
Mjj fiiiv, ry fdv 'i^n ^iXayos, tJJ V Ix Aios 

"T^art ya^ roffffaiti ^igi ?igo<ffa) (po^sovrai. 

The Cambridge, one of the Arun- 
delian, and one of Dr. Mead's ma- 
nuscripts have aut instead of at, at 
the beginning of ver. 370. 

373. Legit.'] Heinsius has legunt, 
in which, I think, he is almost sin- 
gular. 

Imprudentibus.'] Some interpret 
this unwise, as if the poet's meaning 
was, that these signs are so plain, 
that the most unwise must observe 
them. Thus Dryden : 

Wet weather seldom hurts the most 

un'wise, 
So plain the signs, such prophets are the 

skies. 



But imprudefis signifies not only 
imprude7it or unwise, but also unad- 
vised, U7iinformed, or unawares, in 
which sense this passage is gene- 
rally understood. Virgil's meaning 
seems to be, that the signs are so 
many, that none can complain of a 
shower's falling on him unawares. 

374. Aut ilium surgentem vallibus, 
&c.] This passage is variously in- 
terpreted. Some take the prog- 
nostic of rain to be the cranes leav- 
ing the valleys, and flying on high, 
reading this passage gruesfugere ex 
imis vallibus. Of this opinion are 
Servius, Grimoaldus, Ruaeus, and 
several others. Diyden translates 
it in this sense : 

The wary crane foresees it first, and 

sails 
Above the storm, and leaves the lowly 

vales : 

and Dr. Trapp ; 



■ Or them aerial cranes 



Fled, rising from the vales. 

La Cerda takes the meaning to be 
that the showers rise out of the val- 
leys ; interpreting it thus : *' Grues 
" volatu suo altissimo indicant im- 
^' brem surgere ab imis vallibus." 
In this sense May translates it : 

For from the valleys, e'er it thence arise. 
The cranes do fly. 

Servius was aware of this inter- 
pretation, and condemned it: "Dicit 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



Aerise fiigere grues : aut buciila caelum 375 
Suspiciens patulis captavit naribus auras: 
Aut arguta lacus circumvolitavit hirundo : 
Aut veterem in limo ranae cecinere querelam. 



valleys as it rose : or the beifer 
looking np to h«aven has 
siiufted in the air with wide 
nostrils: or the chattering 
swallow has flown round 
about the lakes : or the frogs 
have croaked out their an. 
cient moan in the mud. 



" autem grues, de vallibus surgere, 
" non pluviam de vallibus surgere." 
A third interpretation is, that the 
cranes left their aerial flight, and 
fled or avoided the coming storm, 
by retreating to the low vales. In 
this sense only Mr. B — has trans- 
lated it : 

Cranes, as it rose, flew downwards to 
the vale. 

This intei-pretation is agreeable to 
what Aristotle has said, in the ninth 
book of his history of Animals, 
where treating of the foresight of 
cranes, he says they fly on high, 
that they may see far off, and if 
they perceive clouds and storms, 
they descend, and rest on the 
ground : EU v-^o^ Trercvrcci, ■zsr^og ro 
KxB^o^olv rei zro^a. K«i lav ioa/tri n^n, 
jcati ^iifAZ^ix, KccrccTFToia-ui iicrv%ut<awnv. 
From this high flight of the cranes, 
we see the propriety of the epithet 
a'ericE ', and we also find that not 
their flying on high, but their 
descent is to be esteemed a sign of 
rain. Aratus also, whom our poet 
imitates in his signs of weather, 
says, the cranes leave their airy 
flight, and return in winding 
mazes : 

OtfS' v^ou yt^dvav (ictx^ai s"i;^£j aura 
xiXiv^a 

375, Aut hucula coslum, &c.] 
Thus also Aratus : 

Ket) (iois ii^ri rot Teagos vituros Iv^ioie, 

Virgil has imitated and almost tran- 
scribed some verses of Varro Ata- 
cinus, which I shall here set down. 



as I find them 
Fulvius Ursinus 



in Servius, and 



Turn liceat pelagi volucres, tardaeque 
paludis 

Cernere inexpleto studio certare lavandi : 

Et velut insolitum pennis infundere 
rorem : 

Aut arguta lacus circumvolitavit hi- 
rundo : 

Et bos suspiciens caelum, mirabile visu, 

Naribus aerium patulis decerpsit odo- 
rem : 

Nee tenuis formica cavis non extulit 
ova. 

These lines of Varro are undoubt- 
edly borrowed from Aratus j and 
the prognostics contained in them 
are in the same order, as in the 
Greek poet. Virgil has varied them, 
and made them more poetical. 

377. Aut arguta lacus, &c.] Thus 
Aratus : 

"H xlfAvnv zifi^) ^TiB^ci x^Xihons aiffffovraty 

This line of Virgil is exactly the 
same with one of Varro, quoted in 
the preceding note. 

378. Aut veterem in limo, &c.] 
It is generally read et veterem : but 
Pierius observed aut in several an- 
cient manuscripts. I find aut in 
the Bodleian and in one of the Arun- 
delian manuscripts. We find this 
prognostic also in Aratus : 

H fiaXkov ^siXut yivia,), ut^otffiv ovtia^, 
■ AwroS'Sv l| S^aTos, <rari^is (^omtri yv^ivav. 

As to the frogs croaking out their 
ancient moan in the mud, the poet 
no doubt alludes to the story of the 
Lycian countrymen being turned 
into frogs by Latona : which is men- 
tioned by Ovid : 



84 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



often also has the pismire 
inakinga narrow road brought 
forth her eggs out of the hid- 
den recesses; and the rain- 
bow has drank deep ; and the 
array of ravens departing 
from their food in a vast body 
has made a great noise with 
clapping their wings. Now 
may you see various sea-fowl, 
and those which search for 
food about the Asian mea- 
dows 



Saepius et tectis penetralibus extulit ova 
Angustum formica terens iter : et bibit ingens 
Arcus : et e pastu decedens agmine magno 381 
Corvorum increpuit densis exercitus alis. 
Jam varias pelagi volucres, et quae Asia circum 



-Et nunc quoque turpes 



Litibus exercent linguas: pulsoque pu- 

dore, 
Quamvis sint sub aqua, sub aqua male- 

dicere tentant. 
Vox quoque jam rauca est. 

379. Scepius et tectis penetralibus, 
&c.] Thus Aratus : 

Qeiffffov dynviyKOCvTo. 

See also the last of the verses quoted 
from Varro, in the note on ver. 375. 

380. Et bibit ingens arcus.'\ It 
was a vulgar opinion amongst the 
ancients, that the rainbow drew up 
water with its horns. We find fre- 
quent allusions amongst the poets 
to this erroneous opinion. I shall 
content myself with one quotation 
fromtheCurculioofPlautus; where, 
as Lena, a drunken, crooked, old 
woman, is taking a large draught 
of wine, Palinurus says, see how the 
bow drinks ! we shall certainly have 
rain to-day : 

-Ecce autem bibit arcus ! pluet 



Credo hercle hodie. 

Aratus mentions the rainbow ap- 
pearing double, as a sign of rain : 

in which he is followed by Pliny : 
" Arcus cum sunt duplices, pluvias 
*' nunciant." 

382. Corvorum increpuit densis 
exercitus alis.] Thus also Aratus: 

An ^ori xat yina) xo^ixuvt xa.) <pv\a, 

xoXoiuv, 
"t^ctros l^;(^oju,i¥oto Atos 'xd^a. aYifj^ lyivovro, 
^OLtvof^ivot dytXyi^df xett i^rixiffciv ofio7ov 
^^ly^dfiivor xui -rou xo^ccxis Viou; ra- 

Xayfioh; 



^uvTi iftiftnffttvre cut vhares l^^ofciteio' 
*K {TOTS xai x^a^atre [ia^iiri hffffdxi (puin 
MetxQov l^ippoi^tvffi Tiva^dfAtvoi -xrigd •Jtuxtd. 

383. Jam varias pelagi volucres, 
&c.] Pierius says that in some an- 
cient manuscripts, the words are 
placed thus: Jam volucres pelagi 
varias ; and that in some it is atque 
Asia for et quce Asia. He observes 
also that it is variae in the Roman 
manuscript. I find the same read- 
ing in the Bodleian, and in one of 
the Arundelian manuscripts: but the 
grammatical construction willhardly 
allow it not to be varias. The other 
Arundelian manuscript has ium in- 
stead oijam. 

Aratus has mentioned this prog- 
nostic also of the water-fowl duck- 
ing themselves before rain : 

HaWdxi XifivaTai » tlydXtcu opviBts 

Virgil seems to have imitated this 
verse of the second Iliad : 

'Affiai h Xufiuft, Kavff^iov a/i^) phB^^a, 

The Asia palus or Asius campus is 
the name of a fenny country, which 
receives the overflowings of the Cay- 
ster. The first syllable of this ad- 
jective is always long j as in the 
passage now before us j and in the 
fourth Georgick : 



Atque Ephyre, 
Deiopeia : 



atque Opis, et Asia 



and in the seventh .^neid : 



-Sonat amnis et Asia longe 



Pulsa palus. 

The first syllable of Asia, the name 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



85 



Dulcibus in stagnis rimantur prata Caystri, 
Certatim largos humeris infundere rores ; 385 
Nunc caput objectare fretis, nunc currere in un- 

das, 
Et studio incassum videas gestire lavandi. 
Turn cornix plena pluviam vocat improba voce, 
Et sola in sicca secum spatiatur arena. 
Nee nocturna quidem carpentes pensa puellae 
Nescivere hyemem : testa cum ardente viderent 
Scintillare oleum, et putres concrescere fungos. 



in the sweet lakes of Cayster, 
strive to pour a plenty of 
water over their shoulders, 
and now plunge into the sea, 
and then run upon the waves, 
and wantonly wash them- 
selves in play. Then does 
the unlucky crow call the 
rain with a loud voice, and 
wanders by herself alone on 
the dry sand. Nor are the 
maids who perform their 
nightly tasks ignorant of the 
approaching storm, when 
they see the oil spatter in the 
lamp, and fungous excres- 
cences grow about the wick. 



of a quarter of the world, is short; 
as in the second Georgick : 

Qui nunc extremis Aiioe jam victor in 
oris. 

Cayster or Cay strus is the name of 
a river of Asia, which rises in Phry. 
gia major, passes through Lydia, 
and falls into the ^gean sea near 
Ephesus. The country about this 
river, being marshy, abounds with 
water-fowl. Swans are frequently 
mentioned by the poets: Homer, 
in the passage to which we just 
now referred, speaks of geese,cranes, 
and swans : 



■OoviSuv ^intivuv e^vsa troXXd 



'AfftM, &C. 

386. Undas."] Pierius says that 
some of the ancient manuscripts 
have undisj and others undas. One 
of Dr. Mead's manuscripts has 
iindis, and the other has undam. 

388. Turn cornix plena, &c.] The 
crow is mentioned also by Aratus ; 

Htou xut zsrorecfioTo iSd'^aro f^iXi^ ista,^ 

ilfAovs IX, xiipuXiis' yi xai (jidXa ■sra.ffa. 

xoXvfA^^ 
' H -aroXXi} CTge^srai ara^' «^«g 9a;^£0s «ga- 
Z,6vffu. 

The ancients thought that crows 
not only predicted rain, but called 



it. Thus Lucretius, speaking of 
the different voices of birds : 

Et partim mutant cum tempestatibus 

una 
Raucisonos cantus, cornicum ut saecla 

vetusta, 
Corvorumque greges, ubi aquam di- 

cutitur et imbres 
Poscere, et interdum ventos aurasque 

vocare. 

Sometimes at change of air they change 
their voice: 

Thus daws, and om'nous crows, with va- 
rious noise. 

Affright the farmers t and Jill all the plain. 

Now calling /or rough winds, and now 
for rain. 

Creech. 

Servius reads rauca instead oi plena ; 
but plena is generally allowed to be 
the true reading. 

The Bodleian and one of the 
Arundelian manuscripts, after ver. 
388, have 

Aut caput objectat querulum venientibus 
undis. 

The King's and one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts have et caput, &c. In 
the Cambridge manuscript this verse 
is mutilated; Aut caput querulum 
jactat, &c. In the old Nurenberg 
edition et caput, &c. is added after 
ver. 389. 

392. Scintillare oleum, et putres 
concrescere fungosJ] This also is 
mentioned by Aratus : 



86 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Nor is it less easy to foresee 
iinshowery sans, and fair open 
weatlier, and to Icnow them 
by manifest signs. For then 
the light of the stars does not 
seem dim, nor does the moon 
seem to rise, as if she was in- 
debted to her bi other's beams : 
nor thin fleeces of wool seem 
to be carried through the sky. 
Nor do Thetis's beloved Hal- 
cyons spread open their wines 
to the warm sun, along the 
shore : 



Nec minus eximbres soles, et aperta serena 
Prospicere, et certis poteris cognoscere signis. 
Nam neque tum stellis acies obtusa videtur ; 395 
Nec fratris radiis obnoxia surgere Luna : 
Tenuia nec lanae per caelum vellera ferri. 
Non tepidum ad solem pennas in littore pandunt 



Uvxra xara ffxorivv, f^ri^' nv waro ^^u/Accres 

ugvt 
Auxvuv ilkkon (lU re (pdog xaroc, »o<rfjt,ev 

"hWoTi V dllffaufftv aTo (pXoyii, rivn 

Ilflytt^oXtfyif. 

The sputtering of the lamps, be- 
ing occasioned by the moisture of 
the air, may well predict rain. 

393. Nec minus, &c.] After the 
signs of wind and rain, the poet 
now proceeds to give us those of 
fair weather. 

Eximbres.'] So Pierius found it 
in some ancient manuscripts. Al- 
most all the editions have ex imbri; 
taking the poet's meaning to be that 
these are signs of fair weather fol- 
lowing the shower; or that they 
are to be observed during the rain. 
May's translation is. 

By no less true, and certaine signs 

may we 
Faire dayes and sunshine itt a storvie 

foresee. 

Dryden has. 

Then after shoiors 'tis easy to descry 
Returning suns, and a serener sky. 

Dr. Trapp translates it. 

Nor less serenity succeeding slww^rs 
And sunny skies, by sure unfailing signs 
Thou may'st foresee. 

Mr. B — alone adheres to eximbres; 

Nor from less certain signs, the swain 

descry s 
Unslioiff'ry suns, and bright expanded 

skies. 



This reading seems more poetical 
than the common : and it is certain, 
that Virgil's meaning could not be, 
that these observations are to be 
made during the rain. At such a 
time it would be impossible to ob- 
serve the brightness of the moon 
and stars ; which are the first prog- 
nostics mentioned by our author. 

S95. Nam neque turn stellis acies 
obtusa videtur.'] Aratus mentions 
the dimness of the light of the stars 
as a sign of foul weather : 

"'UfMS V dtri^ohv xa6agh (pdos dftSkvfnrat. 

396. Nec fratris radiis obnoxia 
surgere luna.] Servius thinks that 
obtusa is to be understood here; and 
that the sense is, '' For then neither 
** does the light of tlie stars seem 
" dim, nor that of the moon, which 
" is beholden to her brother's beam." 
Ruaeus seems to have found the true 
meaning of this |)assage ; that " the 
'' moon rises with such an exceed- 
" ing brightness, that one would 
'' rather think her light to be her 
" own, than only borrowed from the 
" sun." See Aulus Gellius, 1. vii. 
c. 17. 

397. Tenuia nec Innas per ccelum 
vellera ferri.] By thin fleeces of 
wool the poet means the fleecy clouds, 
which Aratus mentions as a sign of 
rain ; 

TloXXdxt V l^^ofAtvuv virut f'upta cr^oTei- 
Ola fidXiffrei zfoxoiffiv iotxora if^uXXoiTai. 

398. Non."] In one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts it is nec. 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



87 



Dilectae Thetidi Alcyones : non ore solutos 
Immundi meminere sues jactare maniplos. 400 



oor do the fililiy swine re- 
member to uabinfl and loss 
about the bundles ot straw 
with their snouts. But ilie 
, , . . mists descend, and lie on the 

At nebulae mams una petunt, campoque recum- piain: and the owi observing 

o XT ' r T. the setting snn from the top 

v. „4. . of the roof, forbears to sing 

UUni . her iiigiitly song. 

Solis et occasum servans de culmine summo 
Nequicquam seros exercet noctua cantus. 



399' T>ilect(E Thetidi Halcyones.] 
The fable of Ceyx and his wife Hal- 
cyone being turned into these birds 
is beautifully related in the eleventh 
book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. The 
mutual love of these persons sub- 
sisted after their change, in honour 
of which, the gods are said to have 
ordained, that whilst they sit on 
their nest, which floats on the sea, 
there should be no storm. Some 
say this lasts seven days, others 
nine, others eleven, and others four- 
teen. Ovid mentions seven : 

Et tandem, superis miserantibus, 

ambo 
Ante mutantur. Fatis obnoxius isdem 
Tunc quoque mansit amor. Nee coii- 

jugiale solutum 
Foedus in alitibus : coeunt, fiuntque pa- 
rentes : 
Perque dies placidos hiberno tempore 

septem. 
Incubat Halcyone, pendentibus aequore 

nidis, 
Turn via tuta maris : ventos custodit, et 

arcet 
iEolus egressu: praestatque nepotibus 

aequor. 

The gods commiserate : 
And cliange them both, obnoxious to like 

fate. 
As erst they love: tJieir nuptial faiths 

they shew 
In little birds : ingender^ parents grow. 
Seven lointer days with peaceful calms 

possesty 
Alcyon sits ttpon her footing nest. 
Then safely saile: then Molus incaves 
For his the winds; and smooths the 

stooping waves. 

Sandys. 

Hence they are said to be beloved 



by the sea-nymphs. Thus Theo- 
critus : 

X' akxoo'ns ro^ttrsuvrt ra KVfcara, rdv rz 

B'dkao'ffecVf 
Toy T$ vorov, rov <r ti^ov of 'iff^ccra, (f/uKia 

XiVSt. 

'AkKVovsff yXavKuTs Nw^JjilV* rain (jt.oi- 

ciyga. 

Let Halcyons smooth the seas, the storms 
allay, 

And skim the floods before him all the 
way: 

The nymphs' lov'd bird, of all that 
haunt the flood. 

Skim o'er the waves, and dive for swim- 
ming food. 

Creech. 

399- Ore solutos.'} Servius says 
that some read ore soluto, that is, 
with very wide snouts or mouths. 
In this sense Mr. B has trans- 
lated it : 

Nor mindful are the swine, witJi jaws 
displayed 

To gripe the straw, and toss their rust- 
ling bed. 

403. Nequicquam.] I have ob- 
served, in the note on ver. 192, that 
nequicquam is seldom used by Virgil 
for non: but here I think it is 
plainly used in that. sense. Aratus 
says that the singing of the owl is 
a sign of the storms ceasing : 



-Nt/«rs^/»j ykecu^ 



Hffv^ov diitovffa, fAct^aivofiivoo ^u/iavos 
rmr^^u vol ffT^fAK. 

Pliny says the chattering of the owl 
in rain is a sign of fair weather j 



88 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Nisus soars aloft in the clear Appai'et liouido sublimis in aere Nisus, 

sky, and Scylla is punished for it i 

the purple hair: jj^ ^^^ purputeo poenas dat Scylla capillo : 405 



and in fair weather, of a storm: 
*' Grues silentio per sublime vo- 
*' lantes [praesagiunt] serenitatem. 
'' Sic noctua in imbre garrula : at 
" sereno, tempestatem." We have 
seen already, in the note on ex- 
imbres, that the prognostics here 
set down relate to the continuance 
of fair weather, not of its succeed- 
ing a storm. Therefore the silence 
of the owl is a sign of the continu- 
ance of fair weather. If we un- 
derstand the poet to be speaking 
during the rain, the hooting of the 
owl will be a sign of fair weather, 
according to Aratus. But then ne- 
quicquam must be wrong, whether 
we take it to mean not or in vain. 
If we understand the poet to speak 
of the continuance of fair weather, 
nequicquam must signify not; be- 
cause, according to Pliny, the hoot- 
ing of the owl at such a time would 
be a sign of rain. May has trans- 
lated nequicquam, not : 

The fatal owle high mounted at sun-set 
Does not the baleful evening song repeat. 

Dryden has translated this passage 
most wretchedly : 

And owls that mark the setting sun» 

declare 
A star-light evening, and a morning 

fair. 

Dr. Trapp translates nequicquam, in 

vain : 

And now the bird 

Of night, observant of the setting sun. 
Sings her late song from some high 
tow*r in vain. 

" Nequicquam (says this learned 
*' gentleman) for nan is intolerable : 
" and Servius gives us no authority 
*' for it but Persius's ; which, con- 
'* sidering the obscurity of that 
" writer, is nothing at all. Besides, 



" it is well known that the music 
" of the owl (such as it is) is a 
" prognostic of dry weather. I 
'' thei:efore take it thus ; that dark 
" bird delighting in rain and clouds 
'' makes this noise, by way of com - 
^' plaint, not of joy (for it is a dismal 
" ditty indeed) at the approach of 
" fair weather : but does it nequic- 
'* quam, in vain : for that weather 
" will come, for all her hooting." 
This interpretation seems to be very 
much forced, and not to be sup- 
ported by any good authority. 
Mr. B — 's interpretation is not very 
different. " Virgil embellishes this 
*' mean subject in a very extraor- 
" dinary manner. When he is to 
*' say that the hooting of owls at 
'' night is a sign of fair weather, he 
" takes occasion to make a delicate 
*' reflection upon superstitious peo- 
*^ pie. Owls were supposed by 
'' such persons always to forbode 
" some calamity by their noise; 
" but now, says he, they sing 
'^nequicquam, in vain; for nobody 
" is so weak as to expect bad wea- 
" theV from their music." 

404. A'ere.~\ In one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts it is cethere: it is the 
same also in the Roman manuscript, 
according to Pierius. 

40.5. Et pro purpurea poenas dat 
Scylla capillo.'] The story of Nisus 
and Scylla is related in the eighth 
book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. 
Nisus was king of Alcathoe or 
Megara. He had on his head a 
purple hair, in which the security 
of the kingdom lay. Scylla, his 
daughter, filing desperately in love 
with Minos, who besieged the city, 
stole the purple hair, and fled with 
it to him. But that just prince, 
abhorring the crime, rejected her 
with indignation, and sailed to Crete, 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



89 



Quacunque ilia levem fugiens secat aethera 

pennis, 
Ecce inimicus atrox magno stridore per auras 
Insequitur Nisus, qua se fert Nisus ad auras, 
Ilia levem fugiens raptim secat aethera pennis. 
Turn liquidas corvi presso ter gutture voces, 410 
Aut quater ingeminant ; et saepe cubilibus altis, 
Nescio qua praeter solitum dulcedine laeti. 
Inter se foliis strepitant : juvat imbribus actis 
Progeniem parvam, dulcesque revisere nidos. 
Haud equidem credo, quia sit divinitus illis 415 
Ingenium, aut rerum fato prudentia major : 



wherever she (lying cuts tlie 
light air with her wings, be- 
hold Nisns her cruel enemy 
pursues with a great noise 
through the air: where Nisus 
mounts the sky, she swiniy 
flying cuts the light air with 
her wings. Then do the ra- 
vens press their throats, and 
three or four times redoubled 
a clearer sound ; and often re- 
joicing, in their lofty habita- 
tions, with I know not what 
unusual sweetness, rustle a- 
mongst the leaves: they de- 
light, when the showers are 
driven away, to revisit their 
little offspring, and their sweet 
nests. Not that I think they 
have any genius from heaven, 
or extraordinary knowledge 
of things by fate : 



leaving her behind. Scylla, in de- 
spair, plunged into the sea after him, 
and took fast hold of the ship. Her 
father, who had just been changed 
into the Haliaetos, which is thought 
to be the osprey, a rapacious bird 
of the eagle kind, hovering over her 
to tear her in pieces, she let go her 
hold, and was immediately changed 
into the ciris. Some take this bird 
to be a lark, others think it is a 
solitary bird, with a purple crest on 
its head, which continually haunts 
the rocks, and shores of the sea. 

406. Mthera.'] In one of the 
Arundelian manuscripts it is a'era. 

410. Corvi.l This prognostic of 
the ravens is taken also from Aratus : 

Ka/ Xanaxes fiouvot (aIv, l^n(/,Be,7oi (ioatovrss 
Aiirffaxts. avru^ s'Tura (ttsraSgaa xixXti- 
<yovri$. 

^uvtis 'i[i.vXtm, ^^ai^uv xi rts ditffffoiTo, 
Olcc ra fiiv (ioo&icrt, Xiyaivofjcivotiriv ofiola,. 
TloWk %\ ^tv^^iioio Ti^t <pXoov oiXkoT' Itt 

aiiTov 
H^i Ti xsioufftv xu) v^or^O'Tei avri^iovTat. 

413. Inter se foliis.'] So I read it 
with Heinsius, and most of the good 
editors. Pierius says it is inter se 
in foliis, in the Medicean and most 
of the ancient manuscripts. The 
preposition in is retained also in one 



of the Arundelian, and both Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts : but in the rest, 
which I have consulted, mis omitted. 
It is more agreeable to Virgil's style 
to leave it out. 

4)15. Haud equidem credo, &c.] 
Here Virgil speaks as an Epicurean : 
he does not allow any divine know- 
ledge or foresight to be in birds ; but 
justly ascribes these changes in their 
behaviour to the effects which the 
alterations of the air, with regard to 
rarefaction and density, have upon 
their bodies. 

41 6. Rerum fato prudentia ma- 
jor.'] This passage has been vari- 
ously interpreted by the commen- 
tators. Servius interprets it, " pru- 
" dentia quce est major rerum fato j" 
a knowledge which is greater than 
the fate of things. La Cerda ex- 
plains it much to the same purpose ; 
" prudentia quibus fata superent;" 
a knowledge by which they sur- 
pass fate, Ruaeus follows Servius : 
" prudentia qucB potentior est fato." 
May translates it according to the 
same construction : but with a sort 
of paraphrase : 

1 do not thinke that all these creatures 
have 

More wisedome than the fates to man- 
kind gave. 



90 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



but when the storm and move- 
able moisture of the heaven 
have changed their courses, 
and the air moist with south 
winds condenses wliat just be- 
fore was rare, and rarifies what 
was dense; the images of their 
minds are changed, and their 
breasts now receive a diflferent 
impression, from that whicli 
tliey had when the wind drove 
away the clouds. Hence the 
birds join in concert in the 
fields, and the cattle rejoice, 
and the ravens exulting croak. 
But if you regard the rapid 
sun, and the moons which 
follow in order ; the next day 
will never deceive von, nor 
will you be caught bv the 
snares of a fair night. When 
the moon first collects the 
returning rays, if she in- 
closes black air with dark- 
ened horns. 



Verum, ubi tempestas, et caeli mobilis humor 
Mutavere vias, et Jupiter uvidus austris 
Deiisat erant quae rara modo, et quae densa 

relaxat ; 
Verttintur species animorum, et pectora motus 
Nunc alios, alios dum nubila ventus agebat, 421 
Concipiunt. Hinc ille avium concentus in agris, 
Et laetas pecudes, et ovantes gutture corvi. 
Si vero solem ad rapidum, lunasque sequentes 
Ordine respicies ; nunquam te crastina fallet 
Hora, neque insidiis noctis capiere serenae. 426 
Luna revertentes cum primum coUigit ignes, 
Si nigrum obscuro comprenderit aera cornu. 



Dryden's translation is scarce sense: 

Not that I think their breasts with 

heav'nly souls 
Inspir'd, as man, who destiny controuU. 

Mr. B proposes a new inter- 
pretation, ''major prudentia in fato," 
or " in futuro ; " and accordingly 
translates this passage. 

Not that I think the gods to them dis- 
pense 

Of things in fate a more discerning 
sense. 

Dr. Trapp is of the same opinion : 
" Prudence greater than fate (as this 
'' is generally rendered) is flat non- 
" sense. Take it thus: A gi-eater 
" knowledge [than we have] in the 
'' fate of things." His translation 
runs thus : 

Not that I think an ingeny divine 

To them is giv'n or prescience of events 

la fate superior. 

Grimoaldus seems to have found 
the true sense of this passage : that 
these animals have no particular in- 
struction from the gods, or superior 
knowledge by fate. 

418. Mutavere vias.'] In one of 
the Arundelian manuscripts it is mu- 
tavere vices. 



Jupiter uvidus.'] So I read it with 
Heinsius: almost all the editions 
have Jupiter humidus. Masvicius 
reads uvidus. 

419. Bensat.'^ La Cerda con- 
tends, that denset is the true reading. 
I find denset in one of the Arunde- 
lian, and in one of Dr. Mead's ma- 
nuscripts. 

420. Pectora.] It is pectore in the 
Cambridge and in one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts. Pierius^ound pectore 
in several ancient copies: he ob- 
serves that in the Medicean manu- 
script pectore is written in a different 
hand. 

424. Si vero, &c.] Having shewn 
how the changes of weather are pre- 
dicted by animals, he now proceeds 
to explain the prognostics from the 
sun and moon; and begins with the 
moon. 

428. Aera.] Pierius would fain 
read aere; though he allows at the 
same time that it is aera in all the 
ancient manuscripts. He thinks 
nigrum agrees with cornu, because 
Varro has said ohatnnn coniu ; and 
then obscuro will agree with aere. 
The horn of the 7noon black with 
dark air would certainly not be 
amiss: but then there is some diffi- 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



91 



Maximus agricolis pelagoque parabitur imber. 
At, si virgineum suffuderit ore ruborem, 430 
Ventus erit : vento semper rubet aurea Phoebe. 
Sin ortu quarto, namque is certissimus auctor, 
Pura, neque obtusis per caelum cornibus ibit, 
Totus et ille dies, et qui nascentur ab illo, 
Exact um ad mensem, pluvia ventisque carebunt : 
Votaque servati solvent in litore nautae 436 



a great storm of rain wjllin- 
vafle botli land and sea. Bui 
it" she spreads a virgin blush 
over her face, there will be 
wind: for golden Phoebe al- 
ways reddens with wind. 
But if at her fourth rising, 
for that is the surest sign, 
she shines clear, and not witli 
blunted horns, that whole 
day, and ail the rest of the 
month will be free from rain 
and wind: and the sailors 
escaping shall pay their vows 
on the shore 



culty in making cornu follow com- 
prenderit. For though we may say 
the moon contains or incloses dark 
air with her horns; yet we cannot 
say that the moon contains or in- 
closes her horns with dark air. 
Varro, as he is quoted by Pliny, 
speaks of the dark part of the moon's 
orb inclosing a cloud : Si caligo 
orbis nuhem incluserit. This seems 
to be the same with the horns in- 
closing black air; si nigrum com- 
prenderit a'era cornu. Soon after 
he says ; if the moon rises with the 
upper horn blackish, there will be 
rain after the full; nascens luna, si 
cornu superiore obatro surget, pluvias 
decrescens dabit. This I suppose is 
the passage to which Pierius alludes. 
Virgil has comprehended both these 
presages in one line : the latter be- 
ing fully expressed by the epithet 
obscuro added to cornu. The most 
that we can grant to Pierius seems 
to be, that his reading might be ad- 
mitted, if there were good authority 
for it. But, as he cannot produce 
one manuscript to justify it, and as 
the common reading is sense, and 
very intelligible, I see no reason to 
make such an alteration. 

429. Agricolis.] La Cerda reads 
Agricolce. 

430. Virgineum.'] La Cerda reads 
virgineo. 

4iS2. Sin ortu quarto.] La Cerda, 
Ruaeus, and several other editors 
read ortu in quarto. But the prepo- 



sition is omitted in most of the an- 
cient manuscripts, according to Pie- 
rius. It is omitted also in the King's, 
the Cambridge, one of the Arunde- 
lian, and both Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts. Servius, Heinsius, and se- 
veral of the old editors also leave it 
out. It is retained in the Bodleian, 
and in the other Arundelian manu- 
script. It is more agreeable to the 
style of Virgil, to leave out the 
preposition. 

Other authors differ from Virgil 
in this particular, and propose other 
days of the moon's age, as equally 
or more certain prognostics of the 
ensuing weather. The poet follows 
the opinion of the Egyptians, ac- 
cording to Pliny: Quariam earn ma- 
xime observat Mgyptus. 

434. Nascentur.] It is. nascetur 
in the Roman, and nascuntur in the 
Lombard manuscript, according to 
Pierius. It is nascetur in the King's 
manuscript: La Cerda also has the 
same reading. 

436. Votaque servati solvent in li- 
tore nautce.] Pierius says it is ad li- 
tora in the Roman manuscript. 

It was a custom amongst the an- 
cient mariners to vow a sacrifice to 
the sea-gods on the shore, provided 
they returned safe from their voyage. 
This custom is alluded to by our 
poet in the third ^neid : 

Quin ubi transmissce steterint trans 

aequora classes, 
Et positis aris jam vota in littorc solves. 

N 2 



92 P. VIRGILII MARONIS 

loMS%'%'e^sr''o?'i:S Glauco, et Panopeae, et Inoo Melicertae. 

The sun also, both when he _, , . t • j 

rises, and when he dies him- S50I quoQue et exoneiis, et cum sc condit in undas, 

self m the waves, will give t T -^ -' 

liflLT '""'' "'" '"'"' Signa dabit ; solem certissima signa sequuntur ; 



Bui ■when your ships rest wafted o'er the 

main, 
jind you on altars rais'd along the shore 
Pay your vow'd off*rings. 

Dr. Tbapp. 

And again in the fifth ; 

Dii, quibus imperium est pelagi, quorum 

aequora curro ; 
Vobis laetus ego hoc candentem in littorc 

taurum 
Constitiiam ante aras voti reus, extaque 

salsos 
Porriciam in fluctus, et vina liquentia 

fundaro. 

Ye gods, who rule the ocean which I sail : 
Victor, before your altars on this shore. 
To you a snow white bull I will present, 
Oblig'd hy vow ; and on the briny deep 
Scatter the entrails, pouring purest wine. 
Dr. Tbapp. 

437. Glauco, et PanopecE, et Inoo 
Melicerfce.'] This verse is taken 
from Parthenius, according to Aulus 
Gellius: 

TXavKoi, XU4 N)7^£/ xa) iivakiu MiXixi^rr,. 

Macrobius reads 'ivaa instead of tim' 
>^ia. Lucilius also has almost the 
same words in one of his epigrams: 

TXavKu, Kut N9]^£j, xet) 'ivot, xai MiXixi^Tvi 
Kai (ivB-iu K^ovi^n, xai lafceB-^tt^^t B^toTg, 

"^u^iU ix ■^iXa.yovs tiouxiXXios, eShi xixa^- 
ftai 
Tag Tgi^oLi ix xiipuXiis' cikko yog ovhiv 

Virgil leaves the vowels open, after 
the manner of the Greek poets. 

Glaucus was a fisherman, who, 
observing that his fish, by touching 
a certain herb, recovered their 
strength, and leaped again into the 
water, had the curiosity to taste of 
it himself: upon which he imme- 
diately leaped into the water and 
became a sea-god. Panopea was 



one of the Nereids. She 
tioned in the fifth ^Eneid : 



IS men- 



Dixit ; eumque imis sub fluctibus audiit 

omnis 
Nereidum Phorcique chorus, Panope- 

aque virgo ; 
Et pater ipse manu magna Portunus 

euntem 
Impulit. 

Ino was the daughter of Cadmus, 
and wife of Athamas, king of Thebes. 
Flying from the fury of her husband, 
who had already torn one of their 
children in pieces, she threw herself 
into the sea, with her son Melicerta. 
They were both changed into sea- 
deities: Ino was called by the Greeks 
Leucothea, and by the Romans Ma- 
tuta: Melicerta was called by the 
Greeks Palaemon, and by the Ro- 
mans Portunus. 

438. Sol quo(jue, <^c.] In this pas- 
sage are contained the predictions 
drawn from the rising and setting 
of the sun. The three first lines are 
taken from as many of Aratus : 

'HeX/a/o Vi roi fiiXira Ixdrt^Bi* lovres' 
'HiXtu xai fAaXkev loixora ffriftara, xtTreu, 
'A/A([)oTi^o¥, ^utdDTi, xeti Ix vTi^eiTtis atiitrt. 

Cotidit.'] It is condet in one of the 
Arundelian, and both Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts: several printed edi- 
tions have the same reading. I 
follow Heinsius. 

439. Sequuntur.'] It is sequeniur 
in the Cambridge, one of the Arun- 
delian, one of Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts, and in several printed edi- 
tions. Pierius says it is sequuntur 
in the Roman, the Medicean, and 
the Lombard manuscript, and thinks 
this the best reading. Servius, La 
Cerda, and some others read sequeU' 
iur. Heinsius, Ruaeus, and others 
read sequuntur. 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



Et qua? mane refert, et quae surgentibus astris. 
Ille ubi nascentem maculis variaverit ortum 441 
Condi tus in nubem, medioque refugerit orbe ; 
Suspect! tibi sint imbres ; namque urget ab alto 
Arboribusque satisque Notus pecorique sinister. 
Aut ubi sub lucem densa inter nubila sese 445 
Diversi rumpent radii, aut ubi pallida surget 
Tithoni croceum linquens Aurora cubile; 
Heu male turn mites defendet pampinus uvas, 
Tammultain tectis crepitans salithorrida grando. 



botb those which he brings in 
the morning, and those when 
the stars arise. VVIien at his 
first rising he appears spotted, 
and hid in a cloud, and with- 
draws half his orb; you 
may suspect showers: for 
the south- wind pernicious to 
trees, and corn, and cattle, 
presses from the sea. Or 
when at his rising the rays 
scatter themselves diversly 
among thick clouds, or when 
A urora rises pale, as she leaves 
the saffron bed of Tithonus; 
alas, the vine-leaf will but 
poorly defend the ripening 
grapes, so thick will horrid 
hail bound rattling upon the 
roofs. 



441. Maculis variaverit ortum.'] 
Thus Aratus : 

M;j 01 -roixikXetro viov (iaXXovrog a^ov^ais 
KvxkoSf or tii^tov xi^^rtfU'ivos ijfcaros Ufis, 
Mri^i vt ffTtfAO, (p's^oif <patvoiTo ^l Xtros a^tavrt], 

442. Conditus in mihem.'] Thus 
Aratus : 

M»jS' on 01 oXiyt} vi^iXti -rd^os avriXXniriy 
T>jy Tt fiiT ax'rlyuvxi^^oi7(Ji.hos oihros asg^w, 

443. Ab alio.'] La Cerda explains 
this ab alto aere. Ruaeus interprets 
it e mart. Mr. B seems to fol- 
low La Cerda : 

The south comes pow'ring down. 

And Dr. Trapp : 

' Notus /rcwi above 
Threatens. 

See the note on collects ex alto nubes, 
ver. 324. 

445. Sese diversi rumpent radiL] 
Pierius says it is rumpunt in the Ro- 
man manuscript; and rumpent in 
the Medicean, and other ancient 
manuscripts. It is rumpent in the 
King's, the Cambridge, and both 
the Arundelian manuscripts. Hein- 
sius, Masvicius, and several other 
editors, have the same reading. 
Servius, La Cerda, Ruaeus, and 
others read erumpent. 

This prognostic of the scattering 
of the rays of the sun is taken also 
from Aratus ; 



'AXX' oux,* oirvoTi xolXos luVofiivos <rfgi- 

r'iXXriy 
OvV ottot' axTi'vuv, at /x,h vorev, at Ss (io^riec 
'2^tZ,o[jt,iva,i (idXXafft, <rei V au jrigi ftiera'a 

'AXXd 'xou n vBToto hi^^irat, « uvifieto, 

446. Surget.] So Pierius found 
it in the Medicean and other ancient 
manuscripts, though, he says, there 
are some that read surgit. One of 
the Arundelian, and both Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts have surgit. Almost 
all the printed editions have surget. 

447. Tithoni croceum linquens Au- 
rora cubileS] This verse is repeated 
in the third and ninth ^neids. 
Tithonus was the son of Laomedon, 
king of Troy. Aurora, or the 
morning, is fabled to have fallen in 
love with him. Homer speaks of 
Aurora rising from the bed of Ti- 
thonus, in the eleventh Iliad : 

'H«j S* \x Xi^iuv jrag' ayavou Ti^avoTo 

The saffron morn, with early blushes 

spread. 
Now rose refulgent from Tithonus* bed. 
Mr. Pope. 

448. Defendet.] Servius reads 
defendit : but Pierius has observed, 
that it is the future tense, in the 
Medicean, and almost all the other 
ancient manuscripts. 

449. Tarn.] It is turn in several 
manuscripts: but iam is generally 
received. 



94 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



It will also be more profitable 
to observe this, when the sun, 
having measured the heavens, 
is now going down : for we 
often see various colours wan- 
der over his face, 'i'he blue 
foretels rain ; the fiery foretels 
wind : but if the spots begin 
to be mixed with fiery red, 
then you may expect a storm 
of wind and rain. That night 
let none advise me to go upon 
the sea, or to loose my cable 
from the shore. But if his 
orb shall be clear, both when 
he biings on the day, and 
when he carries it back again, 
in vain shall you be afraid of 
showers, and you will see the 
woods wave with the clear 
north wind. Lastly, the sun 
will give you signs of what 
the late evening will produce, 
from whence the wind drives 
the bright clouds, what the 
moist south wind is meditat- 
ing. Who dares accuse the 
sun of falsehood ? he also often 
foretels the approach of dark 
tumults, and the growth of 
treachery, and bidden wars. 



Hoc etiam,emenso cum jam decedetOlympo, 450 
Profuerit meminisse magis: nam saepe videmus 
Ipsius in vultu varios errare colores. 
Caeruleus pluviam denunciat, igneus euros : 
Sin maculae incipient rutilo immiscerier igni ; 
Omnia tunc pariter vento nimbisque videbis 455 
Fervere. Non ilia quisquam me nocte per altum 
Ire, neque a terra moneat convellere funem. 
At si, cum referetque diem, condetque relatum, 
Lucidus orbis erit, frustra terrebere nimbis, 
Et claro sylvas cernes aquilone moveri. 460 

Denique, quid vesper serus vehat, unde serenas 
Ventus agat nubes, quid cogitet humidus auster, 
Sol tibi signa dabit : Solem quis dicere falsum 
Audeat ? ille etiam caecos instare tumultus 
Saepe monet, fraudemque et operta tumescere 
bella. 465 



450. Emenso cum jam decedei 
Olympo, profuerit meminisse 7nagis,'2 
Thus Aratus : 

^EtTTt^iois KO.) fioiXXov aXridio, nx/n^gaio. 

452. Varios errare colores.^ The 
various colours of the sun are men- 
tioned also by Aratus : only, where 
Virgil speaks of blue, the Greek 
poet mentions black : 

"H i" -rou fiiXavsT, xal ffoi to, fAiv, v^aros 'i?'u 
'XrifACtra fiiXXovros' tx. V \giu6ia, 'xdv-r 

E'tys fih afA^origois cifiu^is xi^^tucri^'ivos £<'»;, 
Ka/ x£v uhup ^o^ioty xai vnjvifiios rawolro. 



456. 'Non ilia quisquam, &c.] 
This kind of excursion is used by 
Virgil in other places. Thus in the 
second Georgick : 

Nee tibi tam prudens quisquam persua- 

deat auctor 
Tellurem Borea rigidam spirante mo- 



And in the third : 

Ne mihi turn molles sub dio carpere 

somnos, 
Neu dorso nemoris libeat jacuisse per 

herbas. 

458. At si, &c.] Thus Aratus : 

E/ S' aiiru; xa^a^o'v ju,iv 'i^ot (iovXvffios <w^»7, 
Avvot y avi^iXoi fjCuXuxriv vTo^iUXos aiyXtiv, 
K«i fih Wt^x^ofji.ivns hovi 'iff vTiv^tos un. 

461. Vehat ^ Pierius says it is 
ferat in the Roman manuscript; 
which he takes to have been put in 
by way of paraphrase. I find the 
same reading in the Cambridge ma- 
nuscript. 

462. Agat.'] It is agit in the 
King's manuscript : but agat is cer- 
tainly much better. 

Quid cogitet humidus Auster.] Pie- 
rius says that some would fain read 
quid cogat et humidus Auster: but 
that most of the ancient manuscripts 
have cogitat. 

465. Operta.] The Bodleian ma- 



GEORG. LIB. I. 95 

Ille etiam extincto miseratus Caesare Romam, "'lie mu?det7cam?T'' 



nuscripthas aperta. Dryden seems 
to have read aperta, for he trans- 
lates it open wars. But I have not 
seen aperta in any other manu- 
script, or in any printed edition. 

In Mr. B 's edition it is operta, 

and yet he translates it audacious 
wars. 

4>66. Ille etiam, &c.] Having just 
observed that the sun foretels wars 
and tumults, he takes occasion to 
mention the prodigious paleness of 
the sun after the death of Julius 
Caesar. Then he digresses into a 
beautiful account of the other pro- 
digies which are said to have ap- 
peared at the same time. But though 
he represents these extraordinary 
appearances, as consequences of the 
murder of Caesar ; yet at the same 
time he shews, that they predicted 
the civil war of Augustus and An- 
thony, against Brutus and Cassius, 
The reader cannot but observe how 
judiciously Virgil takes care to shew 
that he had not forgot the subject 
of his poem in this long digression. 
At the close of it he introduces a 
husbandman in future ages plough- 
ing up the field of battle, and asto- 
nished at the magnitude of the bones 
of those, who had been there buried. 

Servius takes the prodigies here 
mentioned to have predicted the 
death of Julius Caesar ; and men- 
tions a darkness of the sun, which 
happened on the fourteenth of 
March, being the day before that 
murder. He adds that this dark- 
ness lasted several hours : '' Constat 
" autem occiso Caesare in Senatu, 
" pridie Iduum Martiarum Sol is 
*^ fuisse defectum, ab hora sexta 
" usque ad noctem. Quod quia 
" multis protractum est horis, dicit 
" in sequentibus, ceternam timuerunt 
" scEcula noctem." Ovid relates these 



prodigies, as preceding Caesar's 
death, but the greatest part of them, 
and especially the extraordinary 
dimness of the sun, are related by 
historians, as happening after that 
murder. Servius is generally un- 
derstood to mean an eclipse in this 
passage by the word defectus ; but 
it is no where mentioned as an 
eclipse, that I remember, nor can I 
guess upon what authority Servius 
could relate either that there was 
an eclipse about that time, or that 
it happened the day before Caesar's 
murder. Ovid speaks of a pale- 
ness of the sun : 

Phoebi quoque tristis imago 
Lurida sollicitis praebebat lumina terris. 

Pliny makes use indeed of the word 
defectus, but he cannot possibly be 
understood to mean what is pro- 
perly called an eclipse j because he 
speaks of its lasting a whole year ; 
" Fiunt prodigiosi etlongiores solis 
" defectus, qualis occiso dictatore 
'' Caesare, et Antoniano bello, totius 
'' pene anni pallore continuo." Ti- 
buUus also says the misty year saw 
the darkened sun drive pale horses : 

Ipsum etiam solem defectum lumine 

vidit 
Jungere pallentes nubilus annus equos. 

Plutarch, in his life of Julius Caesar, 
goes farther. He not only men- 
tions the paleness of the sun, for a 
whole year after Caesar's death: 
but adds, that for want of the na- 
tural heat of the sun, the fruits 
rotted, without coming to maturity. 
Dryden has fallen into the error, 
that the s«.in predicted Caesar's 
death. 

He first the fate of Csesar ^^ii^foretel, 
And pitied Rome when Rome in Caesar 
feil. 



96 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



h^adriithT'dusky'reS Cuiii caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit, 

and impious mortals were ^ . , , 

afraid the darkness would be Impiaoue aetemam tioiuerunt saecula noctem. 

eternal- U hough at that tmie *- ^ 

anVoSoul^aogTAnd'fore: Tempore quamquam illo tellus quoque, et 

boding birds 

aequora ponti, 
Obsccenique canes, import unseque volucres 470 



467. Cum.'] In the King's manu- 
script it is turn. 

Ferrugine.'] Ferrugo does not pro- 
perly signify darkness, or blackness, 
but a deep redness. Thus ferrugi- 
neus is apph'ed to the flower of the 
hyacinth, which is also called -pur- 
pureus, the colour of blood. 

468. Impia scecula.] By scecula 
the poet means men, in imitation of 
Lucretius, Avho frequently uses that 
word, for kind, species, or sex. Out 
of many examples I shall select a 
few : in the fifth book he calls man- 
kind homirium scEcla : 

Quod si forte fuisse antehac eadem 

omnia credis : 
Sed periisse hominum torrenti sacla va- 

pore. 

In the fourth book he calls the fe- 
male sex muUebre sceclum : 

Et muliebre oritur patrio de semine 
scEclum. 

In the second book, scecla is used 
for the several kinds of animals : 

Effoetaque tellus 

Vix anitnalia parva creat, quae cuncta 

creavit 
SoeclOf deditque ferarum ingentia corpora 

partu, 
Haud ut opinor enim mortalia scscla 

superne 
Aurea de caelo demisit funis in arva. 

In the same book sceva scBcla is used 
for beasts of prey, and bucera scecla 
for bulls and cows : 

Principio genus acre leonum, scevaqiie 

scecla 
Tutata 'st virtus, vulpes dolus, et fuga 

cervos j 
At levisomna canum fido cum pectore 

corda. 



Et genus omne, quod est veterino semine 

partum^ 
Lanigeraeque simul pecudes, et bucera 

scecla 
Omnia sunt hominum tutelae tradita, 

Memmi. 

Cornicum scecla vetusta is used also 
in the same book for the species of 
crows. In the second book scecla 
pavonum is used for peacocks : 

Aurea pavonum ridenti imbuta lepore 
Seecla novo rerum superata colore jacc- 
rent. 

I shall produce but one quotation 
more from this author, where scecla 
is used for inanimate things ; 

Nam sua cuique locis ex omnibus omnia 

plagis 
Corpora distribuuntur, et ad sua seecla 

recedunt : 
Humor ad humorem, &c. 

Virgil seems to have used scecula for 
mankind also in the first ^neid : 

Aspera tum positis mitescent sa:cnUi 
bellis. 

470. Obsccenique canes.] Hein- 
sius reads obsccence, in which he is 
almost singular. Obsccenus amongst 
the augurs was applied to any thing 
that was reputed a bad omen. Ap- 
pian mentions dogs howling like 
wolves, after the death of Caesar. 
Ovid speaks of dogs howling by 
night in the forum, and about 
houses, and the temples of the 
gods: 

Inque foro, circumque domos, et tempJa 

Deorum 
Nocturnes ululasse canes. 

hnporiunceque volucres.] Ovid 
mentions the owls as giving omens. 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



97 



Simia dabant. 
agros 



Quoties Cyclopum efFervere in 



Vidimus uiidantem ruptis fornacibus ^tnam, 
Flammarumque globos, liquefactaque volvere 



saxa 



Armorum sonitum toto Germania cselo 
Audiit, insolitis tremuerunt motibus Alpes. 475 
Vox quoque per lucos vulgo exaudita silentes 
Ingeiis, et simulacra modis pallentia miris 



presaged. Uow often have 
we seen /Etna poiir a burning 
(leli^ge from her bursten fur- 
naces over the fields of the 
Cyclops, and roll <lown globes 
of fire and melted stones! 
Germany heard a clashing 
of arms througliout the sky; 
the Alps treml)led with un- 
usual shakings A mighty 
voice also was frequently 
heard through the silent 
groves, and spectres horridly 
pale 



Tristia mille locis Stygius dedit omina 
bubo. 

Some omens of birds are mentioned 
by the historians, as preceding the 
death of Caesar. 

474. Armorum sonitum toto Ger- 
mania ccelo audiit.'] Ovid speaks of 
the clashing of arms, and the noise 
of trumpets and horns : 

Arma ferunt inter nigras crepitantia 

tiubes, 
Terribilesque tubas, auditaque cornua 

caelo 
Praemonuisse nefas. 

Appian also mentions great shouts 
in the air, and clashing of arms, and 
rushing of horses. Perhaps this 
was some remarkable Aurora bore- 
alis seen about that time in Ger- 
many. The learned M. Celsius, 
professor of astronomy at Upsal in 
Sweden, has assured me, that in 
those northern parts of the world, 
during the appearance of an Aurora 
horealis, he has heard a rushing 
sound in the air, something like the 
clapping of a bird's wings. Before 
these phsenomena were so frequent 
amongst us as they now are, it was 
no unusual thing for the common 
people to take them for armies 
fighting in the air. 

475. Motibus.] The King s, and 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, and 
Schrevelius, read montibus. 

.476. Vox quoque per lucos vulgo 
exaudita silentes ingens.'] In the 



King's manuscript it is vulgo est 
audita. 

La Cerda is of opinion that the 
mighty voice heard in the groves, 
of which Virgir here [speaks, was 
the voice of the gods leaving, or 
threatening to leave, their|habita- 
tions. He understands Ovid to 
mean the same thing, when he 
speaks of threatening words being 
heard in the sacred groves : 

Cantusque feruntur 
Auditi, Sanctis et vc7-ia minacia lucis. 

He takes this to be farther explained 
by a|passage in Tibullus, lib. ii. eleg. 
5. where he says the groves foretold 
a flight : 

Atque tubas, atque arma ferunt strepi- 

tantia caelo 
Audita, et lucos praecinuisse fugam. 

The threatening words, says he, of 
Ovid are explained by the flight of 
the gods in Tibullus. He strength- 
ens this observation by a quotation 
from Josephus's seventh book of 
the Jewish war; where speaking 
of the prodigies, which preceded 
the destruction of Jerusalem, he 
says the priests heard a voice in 
the night-time, saying. Let us go 
hence. 

477. Simulacra modis pallentia 
miris visa sub obscurum nociis,'] 
Thus Lucretius : 

Sed quaedam simulacra modis pallentia 
miris. 
O 



98 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



were seen in the dusk of even- 
ing, and cattle spoke, a dire 
omen ! the rivers stop, and 
the earth gapes: and the 
mournful ivory weeps in the 
temples, and fhe brazen sta- 
tues sweat. Eridanus, the 
king of rivers, whirling down 
whole woods with his mad 
torrent, poured forth, and 
bore away the herds with 
their stalls all over the plains: 
nor at the same time 



Visa sub obscurum noctis, pecudesque locutae, 
Infandum ! sistunt amnes, terraeque dehiscunt : 
Et moestum illacrymat templis ebur, aeraque 
sudant. 480 

Proluit insano contorquens vortice sylvas 
Fluviorum Rex Eridanus, camposque per omnes 
Cum stabulis armenta tulit : nee tempore eodem 



Plutarch speaks of ghosts walking 
in the night,, before Caesar's death. 
Ovid also mentions the same thing : 



-Umbrasque silentum 



Erravisse ferunt. 

478. Pecudesque locutcB.I By pe- 
cudes the poet seems to mean oxen : 
for those are the cattle, which are 
said to have spoken on this occa- 
sion. Appian says expressly that 
an ox spoke with human voice. 
TibuUus also mentions oxen : 

Fataque vocales praemonuisse boves. 

479- Sistutit amnes.'] Horace men- 
tions the overflowing of the Tiber 
at this time : 

Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis 
Littore Etrusco violenter undis. 
Ire dejectum raonumenta regis 

Templaque Vestae : 
Iliae dum se nimium querenti 
Jactat ultorem ; vagus, et sinistra 
Labitur ripa, Jove non probante, 

Uxorius amnis. 

Terrceque dehiscunt.'] Ovid men- 
tions an earthquake at Rome : 

— — Motamque tremoribus urbem. 

480. Et moestum illacrymat templis 
ebur oeraque sudant.] " In the an- 
" cient oblong manuscript it is lacri- 
" mat. But in the Boman, Medi- 
'' cean, and some other ancient ma- 
" nuscripts it is illacrimat, which is 
" more like Virgil. For our poet 
'' loves to join to the verbs those 
'' prepositive particles which he has 



'' taken from before the nouns." 

PlERIUS. 

Appian says that some statues 
sweated, and that some even 
sweated blood. 0\ad mentions the 
ivory images sweating in a thou- 
sand places : 

Mille locis lacrymavit ebur. 

Tibuilus speaks of the statues (rf 
the gods weeping : 

Et simulacra Deum lacrymas fudisse 
tepentes. 

482. Fluviorum Rex Eridanus.~\ 
The two first syllables o£ fluviorum 
are short: the poet therefore puts 
two short syllables for one long one. 
Dr. Trapp observes that this redun- 
dancy of the syllables elegantly ex- 
presses the overflowing of the river: 
and has accordingly imitated it in 
his version : 

Eridanus supreme of rivers. 

Eridanus is the Greek name for the 
Po. It rises from the foot of Vesu- 
lus, one of the highest mountains of 
the Alps, and passing through the 
Cisalpine Gaul, now part of Italy, 
it falls into the Adriatic sea, or 
gulf of Venice. It is the largest 
and most famous of all the rivers 
of Italy ; whence Virgil calls it the 
king of rivers, see Pliny, lib. iii. 
c. l6. 

4-83. Tulit.] In the King's ma- 
nuscript it is irahif. 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



99 



Tristibus aut extis librae apparere minaces ; 
Aut puteis manare cruor cessavit ; et alte 485 
Per noctem resonare, lupis ululantibus, urbes. 
Non alias caelo ceciderunt plura sereno 
Fulgura ; nee diri toties arsere cometae. 



did threatening fibres fail to 
appear in the sad entrails: or 
wells to flow with blood ; and 
cities loudly to resound with 
howling wolves by night. 
Never did more lightnings 
fall from a clear sky ; nor 
dreadful comets so often 
blaze. 



484. Trislibus aut extis fibrce ap- 
parere minaces.'] Several authors 
mention a victim wanting a heart, 
before Caesar's death. Ovid adds 
that none of the sacrifices were pro- 
pitious : 

Victima nulla litat : magnosque instare 

tumultus 
Fibra monet. 

485. Puteis manare cruor.'] Ovid 
speaks of its raining blood : 

Saepe inter nimbos guttae cecidere cru- 
entae. 

Alie per noctem resonare lupis ulu' 
lantihus urhes.] Servius reads altcBj 
and interprets it magnce. If this 
reading be admitted, we must render 
this passage, and great cities to re- 
sound with howling wolves by night. 

Appian mentions wolves running 
along the Forum. La Cerda thinks 
that the poet means by wolves the 
ghosts of the departed. In confirma- 
tion of this he quotes some passages 
where the verb ululare is applied to 
spectres. But that real wolves 
should come into the cities seems 
no more improbable than many of 
the other prodigies. 

487- Non alias ccelo ceciderunt 
plura sereno fulgura.'] Thunder from 
a clear sky was always looked upon 
as a prodigy by the ancients : 
though not always accounted an ill 
omen. Horace speaks of Jupiter's 
sending a great deal of snow and 
hail on this occasion, and affrighting 
the city with his thunder and light- 
ning : 

Jam satis terris nivis, atque dirae 
Grandinis misit Pater : et rubente 



Dextera sacras jaculatus arces, 

Terruit urbem. 

Appian also mentions the temples 
and statues of the gods being fre- 
quently stricken with thunder-bolts. 
488. Nee diri toties arsere cometce.] 
Comets are to this day vulgarly re- 
puted dreadful presages of future 
wars. Thus TibuUus : 

Hae fore dixerunt belli mala signa 
cometen. 

Virgil is generally thought to mean 
that comet which appeared for seven 
nights after Caesar's death. But he 
speaks of several comets : where- 
fore I rather believe he means some 
fiery meteors, which were seen about 
that time. Ovid calls them torches : 

> Saepe faces visae mediis ardere sub astris. 

Besides, the famous comet, which is 
said to have appeared for seven 
days, was esteemed a good omen, 
and was fancied to be Caesar's soul 
converted into a blazing star by 
Venus. Thus Ovid : 

Vix ea fatus erat ; media cum sede Se- 

natus 
Constitit alma Venus nulli cernenda : 

suique 
Caesaris eripuit membris, nee in aera 

solvi 
Passa recentem animam, caelestibus in- 

tulit astris, 
Dumque tulit; lumen capere, atque 

ignescere sensit : 
Emisitque sinu. Luna volat altius ilia : 
Flammiferumque trahens spatioso limite 

crinem 
Stella micat. 

This said: invisible faire Venus stood 
Amid the Senate ; from his corpse, ivilh 
Hood 
o2 



100 



Therefore did Philippi a se 
cond time 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 

Ergo inter sese paribus concurrere telis 



DefiVd, her Coesar*s new-fled spirit hare 
To heaven, nor suffer''d to resolve to aire. 
And, as in her soft hosom home, she might 
Perceive it take a powre, and gather light, 
Then once let loose, it forthwith upward 

flew ; 
And after it long Hazing tresses drew. 

Sandys, 

Pliny says it was worshipped in a 
temple at Rome, and has set down 
the very words in which Augustus 
Caesar gave an account of this co- 
met's appearing, whilst he was cele- 
brating the games to Fenus genitrix, 
soon after Caesar's death, in the col- 
lege which he had founded; "lis 
" ipsis ludorum meorum diebus, 
'' sidus crinitum per septem dies 
" in regione caeli, quae sub septen- 
" trionibus est, conspectum. Id 
'* oriebatur circa undecimam horam 
" diei, clarumque et omnibus terris 
" conspicuum fuit. Eo sidere sig- 
" nificari vulgus credidit, Caesaris 
" animara inter deorum immorta- 
" lium numina receptam : quo no- 
" mine id insigne simulacro capitis 
" ejus, quod mox in foro consecra- 
*' vimus, adjectum est." We see 
here that Augustus does not mention 
this star, or comet, as being the soul 
of Caesar, but only as a sign, that his 
soul was received into the number 
of the gods. Yet Suetonius, after 
Ovid, has related it to have been 
thought the very soul of Caesar : 
'^ In deorum numerum relatus est, 
'^ non ore modo decernentium, sed 
'^ et persuasione vulgi. Siquidem 
" ludis, quos primo consecratos ei 
'' haeres Augustus edebat, stella cri- 
'* nita per septem dies continuos 
" fulsit, exoriens circa undecimam 
" horam. Creditumque est, animam 
" esse Ccesaris in caelum recepti; et 
" hac de causa simulacro ejus in 
" vertice additur stella." Cicero 
however, in his second book de 
natura deorum, mentions the appear- 



ance of some comets, in Augustus's 
war, which were predictions of great 
calamities: " Stellis iis, quas Graeci 
" cometas, nostri crinitas vocant : 
'' quae nuper bello Octaviano, mag- 
" narum calamitatum fuerunt prae- 
" nuntiae." Before Ave part with 
these prodigies, it may not be amiss 
to observe, that it is very common 
not only with poets, but with his- 
torians also, to introduce them as 
attending upon great wars, and 
especially upon the destruction of 
cities and great persons. Lucan 
makes them >vait on the battle of 
Pharsalia, and Josephus is not 
sparing of them at the destruction 
of Jerusalem. The wisest men 
however amongst the ancients had 
little faith in them: and only made 
use of them to lead the superstitious 
vulgar. Virgil has related them as 
a poet, with a design to flatter his 
patron Augustus: for it cannot be 
supposed that he, who was not only 
a philosopher, but an epicurean 
also, could have any real faith in 
such predictions. If historians 
have thought it not unbecoming 
their gravity to make such relations, 
surely a poet may be indulged in 
making use of popular opinions, 
when they serve to adorn his work, 
and ingratiate himself with those, 
who have inclination and power to 
confer benefits upon him. 

489. Ergo inter sese, &c.] There 
seems to be no small difficulty, in 
explaining what Virgil means, by 
saying Philippi saw two civil wars 
between the Romans, and Eraathia 
and the plains of Haemus were twice 
fattened with Roman blood. Ruaeus 
says that he once was of opinion, 
that A'irgil alluded to the two battles 
fought near Philippi, within a mdnth 
of each other ; in the first of which 
Cassius was routed, and in the se- 



GEORG. LIB. I. 101 

Romanas acies iterum videre Philippi : 490 ^ft,;^^q;!.?rms?'"' '"'''' 



cond Brutus. But that learned 
commentator gives up this inter- 
pretation; because he thinks the 
fields cannot be said to have been 
twice fattened in one year. He 
seems to me to give it up on rather 
too slight grounds : and I cannot 
help allowing it as no ill solution of 
the difficulty. It is however very 
probable, that the poet alludes to 
the two great civil wars, the first of 
which was decided at Pharsalia, and 
the latter at Philippi. This is gene- 
rally allowed to be Virgil's meaning: 
but then the great distance between 
those two places causes an almost 
inextricable difficulty. Servius in- 
deed says that both battles were 
fought at Philippi, and makes it a 
city of Thessaly : " Philippi civitas 
" est Thessaliae ; in qua primo Cae- 
" sar et Porapeius, postea Augustus 
" et Brutus cum Cassio dimicave- 
" runt." Some others, as Ruaeus 
observes, finding in Stephanus, that 
the Thessalian Thebes, near Phar- 
salus, was also called Philippi, have 
supposed this to be the place, 
where Brutus and Cassius were 
overthrown. But this is certainly 
a mistake, for whosoever rightly 
considers the account delivered by 
historians of that overthrow, will 
find that no other Philippi could 
be meant, but that which is on 
the confines of Thrace, and by some 
authors is placed in Trace, and by 
others in Macedon. Plutarch plainly 
describes the march of Brutus and 
Cassius from Asia through Thrace, 
to the plains of Philippi. There 
they were near destroying Norbanus, 
who was encamped near Symbolon, 
a port of Thrace. He mentions their 
being at this time on the coasts of 
Thassus, which is an island between 
Lemnos and Abdera, a city of 
Thrace. Cassius also was sent to 



Thassus to be buried. The situation 
of Pharsalia is no less evidently in 
Thessaly, being described by Julius 
Caesar himself, as near Larissa : and 
besides he says expressly that the 
decisive battle between him and 
Pompey was fought in Thessaly. 
Hence it appears, that the whole 
country of Macedon lay between 
the fields in which those great 
battles were fought. Ruaeus has 
thought of a new way to resolve 
the difficulty. He refers iiemm, 
not to Philippi, but to the Roman 
armies ; and makes the sense to be, 
that Philippi saw the Roman armies 
engage a second time : that it was 
indeed the first time, that Philippi 
saw them engage, but that it was 
the second time of their engaging. 
This solution is very ingenious: 
but it seems to be attended with 
another difficulty. The poet imme- 
diately adds, that Emathia and the 
plains of Haemus were twice fattened 
with Roman blood. Servius says 
Emathia is Thessaly : " Emathia 
" Thessalia est, dicta ab Emathio 
" rege." If this be true, Emathia 
cannot be said to have been twice 
fattened with Roman blood : it hav- 
ing been already proved, that the 
second war was in Thrace. Be- 
sides Virgil mentions the plains of 
Hasmus, which every body knows to 
be in Thrace. But Pliny expressly 
says that Macedon was anciently 
called JEmathia : " Macedonia post- 
" ea cl populorum, duobus inclyta 
*' regibus quondam que terrarura 
" imperio, Emathia antea dicta." 
Ruaeus justly observes, that Mace- 
don may be said to have been twice 
fattened with Roman blood ; be- 
cause the plains of Philippi and 
Pharsalia are both on the confines of 
Macedon. But this learned com- 
mentator's interpretation with re- 



10^ p. VIRGILII MARONIS 

?hat Em'atiSa,^'''*'' '^"^"^ Nec fuit indignuni superis, bis sanguine nostro 



gard to Haeraus seems not very 
clear. He would have bis to refer 
only to Eraathia, and not to Hae- 
mus : as if Virgil had said, Emathia 
was twice fattened with Roman blood, 
hut above all mount Hcsmus once. I 
cannot be persuaded that the poet 
had so obscure a meaning, which 
seems little better than a mere 
quibble. 

For my part, I believe Virgil is 
to be understood as using the lati- 
tude of a poet, not the exactness of 
a historian, or a geographer. He 
seems to have considered all that 
part of Greece, which contains 
Thessaly, Epirus, and Macedon, 
quite to the foot of mount Haemus, 
as one country. Strabo the geo- 
grapher tells us that spme reckon 
Epirus a part of Macedon : ivioi 11 

xeci (rvfATTXa-oiv ri}V f^i^C^i Ko^Kv^xg, Mec- 
Ki^cvlcti TTptxTxyo^tvova-ii i and Pompo- 
nius Mela seems to speak of Thes- 
saly as a part also of Macedon ; 
" In Macedonia prima est Thes- 
"salia; deinde Magnesia, Phthi- 
" Otis." Nor is Virgil singular in 
ascribing both wars to the same 
tract of land. Ovid introduces Ju- 
piter comforting Venus at the death 
of Julius Caesar, and telling her that 
Pharsalia shall feel Augustus, and 
that Philippi shall be moistened 
with a second Emathian slaughter : 

■' Pharsalia sentiet ilium, 
^mathiaque iterum madefient caede Phi- 
lippi. 

Lucan mentions the seat of the war 
between Caesar and Pompey, some- 
times under the name of Emathia, 
and sometimes of Thessaly. He be- 
gins his poem with 

Bella per Emathios plus quam civilia 
campos. 

In the sixth book he gives a parti- 
cular description of Thessaly, as the 



field of battle, and represents Phar- 
salus, as belonging to Emathia : 

regnum Pharscdos 



Emathis ffiquorei 
A chillis. 



In the seventh book, when the trum- 
pets sound to battle, he makes not 
only Pelion, Pindus, and ^ta, but 
also Haemus and Pangaea, which are 
mountains of Thrace, to re-echo : 

Excepit resonis clamorem vallibus ^mus, 

Peliacisque dedit rursus gemincire ca- 
verais : 

Pindus agit gemitus, Pangaeaque saxa re- 
sultant, 

(Etffiaeque gemunt rupes. 

At the end of this book, he men- 
tions a great part of the Romans 
being mixed with the Emathian 
soil : and then makes an apostrophe 
to that country under the name of 
Thessaly, and prophesies that its 
fields will be fattened a second time 
with Roman blood : 

— — Latiae pars maxima turbje 
Pastidita jacet; quam sol, nimbique, 

diesque 
Longior Emathiis resolutam miscuit 

arvis. 
Thessalica infelix, quo tanto crimine 

tellus 
Lassisti superos, ut ne tot mortibus 

unam, 
Tot scelerum fatis premerent? quod 

sufficit aevum, 
Immemor ut donet belli tibi damna ve- 

tustas? 
QuaB seges infecta surget non decolor 

herba ? 
Quo non Romanos violabis vomere 

manes? 
Ante novee venient acies, scelerique &e- 

cundo 
Praestabis nondum siccos hoc sanguine 

campos. 

In the eighth book he calls Phi- 
lippi Emathian : 

Credet ab Emathiis primes fagisse Phi- 
lippis. 

In the first book he had described 



i 



GEORG. LIB. I, 



103 



Emathiam, et latos Hsemi pinguescere campos. 
Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum finibus illis 
Agricola, incurvo terrain molitus aratro, 
Exesa inveniet scabra rubigine pila ; 495 

Aut gravibus rastris galeas pulsabit inanes, 
Grandiaque efFossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris. 



and the broad plains of Hae- 
mus should twice be fattened 
with our blood. Nay, and 
the time will come, when in 
those countries the husband- 
man, labouring the earth with 
his crooked plough, shall find 
javeling half consumed with 
eating rust; or shall strike 
empty helmets with his heavy 
harrows; and shall wonder at 
the greatness of the bones, 
when he digs up the graves. 



that place to lie under mount Hae- 
mus: 

. Latosque ^mi sub rupe Pol- 



and in the tenth book he calls Hae- 
mus Thessalian : 

•Thessalici qui nuper rupe sub 
Hami, 

Thus we find he speaks of Emathia, 
Thessaly, Haemus, Pharsalus, and 
Philippi, as being in the same coun- 
try. Florus also, the historian, 
speaks of Thessaly, and the plains 
of Philippi, as the same place : " Sic 
** prsecipitantibus fatis, praelio sumta 
*^ est Thessalia, et Philippicis cam- 
*' pis, urbis, imperii, generis hu- 
" mani fata commissa sunt." Per- 
haps both Pliny and Servius are in 
the right, of whom the former, as 
has been already observed, says Ma- 
cedon was anciently called Emathia, 
and the latter says the same of 
Thessaly : for it is not impossible 
that Macedon, Thessaly, and Epirus 
might have been anciently included 
under the name of Emathia. And 
indeed it appears from Caesar's own 
account of that war, that it ex- 
tended over all those countries. 
Soon after Caesar was come into 
Greece we find all Epirus submit- 
ting to him, and the two armies en- 
camped between Dyrrhachium and 
ApoUonia, with the river Apsus be- 
tween the two camps. There are 
several sharp engagements in the 
neighbourhood of Dyrrhachium. 
After his defeat there, he marches 
to the river Genusus, where there 



was a skirmish between Caesar's 
horse, and those of Pompey, who 
pursued him. We find Domitius 
marching as far as Heraclea Sentica, 
which is in the farther part of Ma- 
cedon, towards Thrace, whence, 
being closely pursued by Pompey, 
he narrowly escaped, and joined 
Caesar at ^giniura, on the borders 
of Thessaly. Presently after Caesar 
besieges Gomphi, a city of Thes- 
saly, near Epirus, and soon subdues 
all Thessaly, except the city of 
Larissa, which was possessed by 
Scipio's army. Pompey in a few 
days marches into Thessaly, and 
joins his army with that of Scipio. 
After the famous battle of Pharsalia, 
in Thessaly, we find Caesar pursu- 
ing Pompey, as far as Amphipolis, 
a city of Macedon, in the confines of 
Thrace, not far from Philippi. Thus 
we see the war was not confined to 
Thessaly, but spread itself all over 
Epirus and Macedon, even to the 
borders of Thrace : so that the two 
wars may, with some latitude, be 
ascribed to the same country 5 
though there was so large a space 
between the two spots, where they 
were decided. 

Paribus telis.'] By equal arms the 
poet means a civil war j Romans 
being opposed to Romans. 

492. Latos.'j In the King's ma- 
nuscript, and in some printed edi- 
tions, it is IfEtos. 

493. Cum.] La Cerda has quo. 
497- Grandia ossa,"] It was the 

opinion of the ancients, that man- 
kind degenerated in size and 
strength. In the twelfth ^neid 



104 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Si yel'/i JSVLSl: M patrii, indigetes, et Romule, Vestaque mater, 

and mother vesta. 



the poet represents Turnus throw- 
ing a stone of such a size that 
twelve such men as lived in his 
time could hardly lift from the 
ground : 

Nee plura effatus, saxum circumspicit 

ingens; 
Saxum antiquum, ingens, campo quod 

forte jacebat 
Limes agro positus, litem ut discerneret 

arvis. 
Vix illud lecti bis sex cervice subirent, 
Qualia nunc hominum producit corpora 

tellns, 
Ille manu raptum trepida torquebat in 

hostem. 

Then as he rolVd his troubled eyeiT 

around, 
An antiqzie stone he saw ; the common 

bound 
Of neighh'ring fields ; and harrier of 

the ground. _ 

So vast, that twelve strong men of mO' 

dern days, 
Th' enormous weight from earth coii'd 

hardly raise. 
He heavd it at a lift; and poisd on 

high. 
Ran stagg\ing on against his evicmy. 

Drydex. 

In the passage now before us he re- 
presents their degenerate posterity 
astonished at the bones of the Ro- 
mans, who fell at Pharsalia and 
Philippi, which in comparison of 
those of later ages may be accounted 
gigantic. 

4-98. T>ii patrii &c.] The poet 
concludes the first book, with a 
prayer to the gods of Rome, to pre- 
serve Augustus, and not to take 
him yet into their number, that he 
may save mankind from ruin. 

The commentators differ about 
the signification of the words Dii 
patrii, indigetes: some think the 
Dii patrii and the indigetes are the 
same; to which opinion Ruaeus 
subscribes. Servius, with better 
reason, separates them, and observes 
that the Dii patrii are those which 



l)reside over particular cities, as 
Miners'^a over Athens, and Juno over 
Carthage. They are also caDed 
Penates : and in the second JLneid 
our poet himself seems to make the 
Dii patrii and Penates the same. 
Anchises invokes the Dii patrii to 
preserve his family : 

Dii patrii, servate domum, servate ne- 
potem. 

And immediately ^neas desires 
him to take with him the patrii Pe- 
nates : 

Tu, genitor, cape sacra raanu, jmtrics^ue 
Penates : 

Ovid, at the end of his Metamor- 
phosis, has an invocation for the 
safety of Augustus; wherein he 
mentions these Penates, which 
^neas carried with him, as different 
from the Dii indigetes : 

Dii precor, jEnece comites, quibus ensis 

et ignis 
Cesserunt, Diique indigetes, genitorque, 

Quirine, 
Urbis, etinvicti genitor, Gradive, Quirini, 
Vestaque Cassareos inter sacrata Penates; 
Et cum Caesarea tu, Phcebe domestice, 

Vesta, 
Quique tenes altus Tarpeias, Jupiter, 

arces, 
Quosque alios vati fas appellare piumque. 
Tarda sit ilia dies, et nostro serior ebvo. 
Qua caput Augustum, quem temperat, 

orbe relicto, 
Accedat ceeIo : faveatque precantibus 

absens. 

You gods, Eneas' mates, who made your 
way 

Through fire and sword : you gods of mat 
become ; 

Quirinus, father oftriumj.liant Rm)ie ; 

Thou Mars, invincible Quirinus sire; 

Chaste Vesta, wiHi thy ever-burning fire. 

Among great Ccesar'^s household gods 
enshrin'd : 

Domestic Phcebus, with his Testa join'd ; 

TJwu Jove, who in Tarpeian tow'rt Ttc 
adore ; 

Arid you, all you, who poets nujy im- 
plore : 



I 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



105 



Quae Tuscum Tiberim,et Romana palatia servas, S^ an<f'fhrRoman 

9t l(>»4t f\n nnt liin 

Hunc saltern everso juvenem succurrere saeclo 



rurian Ti- 

^ ^.„ palace, 

._ least do not hinder this 
young man from saving llie 
sinking world ; 



Sfoio he that day, and after I am dead, 
Wherein Augustus, of the woi'ld the head. 
Leaving the earth, shall unto heaven 

repair^ 
And fartour those that seek to him ly 

prayer. 

Sandys. 

There is indeed an inferior order of 
Penates, which preside over private 
famih'es_, and are more frequently 
mentioned : but those spoken of in 
these quotations are plainly the 
greater sort, which preside over 
countries and cities. Ovid indeed 
speaks of Vesta, as one of the Pe- 
nates of Augustus Caesar's family: 
but this seems to be a poetical com- 
pliment, making her peculiar to 
Augustus, who was public to all 
Rome J as appears from Cicero's 
second book de Natura Deorian: 
" Nam Vesta nomen Graecis: ea 
" est enim, qiTae ab illis t^U dicitur. 
" Vis autem ejus ad aras, et focos 
" pertinet. Itaque in ea dea, quae 
" est rerum custos intimarum, om- 
" nis et precatio, et sacrificatio ex- 
*^ trema est." The Indigetes are 
men, who on account of their great 
virtues have been deified : of these 
Cicero speaks in the same book : 
'* Suscepit autem vita hominum, 
*' consuetudoque communis, ut be- 
'' neficiis excellentes viros in caelum 
'* fama, ac voluntate tollerent. Hinc 
'' Hercules, hinc Castor, et Pollux, 

" hinc .^sculapius Hinc 

'' etiam Romulus, quern quidem 
" eundem esse Quirinum putant: 
" quorum cum remanerent animi, 
" atque aeternitate fruerentur, dii 
" rite sunt habiti, cum et optimi es- 
'' sent, et aeterni." And in the 
third book he speaks of them as 
strangers naturalized in heaven : 
" In G'aecia multos habent ex ho- 
" minibus deos Roraulum 



'•" nostri, aliosque complures : quos 
" quasi novos et adscriptitios cives 
" in caelum receptos putant." Ovid 
mentions ^neas as being made one 
of these Indigetes, by Venus, with 
the consent of Jupiter : 

Lustratura genitrix divino corpus odore 
Unxit, et ambrosia cum dulci nectare 

mista 
Contigitos; fecitque Deum : quemtuiba 

Quirini 
Nuncupat Indigetcm, temploque avisque 

recepit. 



His mother .... 



Anoints with sacred odours, and his lijjs 
In Nectar, mingled with Amlroda, dips ; 
So deified : whom Indiges Ro?ne calls ; 
Honour* d with altar Sj shrinesy and festivals. 
Sandys. 

Livy also says that JSneas was called 
Jupiter Indiges: " Situs est, quern - 
" cunque eum dici jus fasque est, 
" super Numicium flumen, Jovem 
" Indigelem appellant." 

Hence it appears tome that Virgil 
invokes two orders of gods, the Dii 
patrii, gods of the country, tutelary 
gods, or Penates, and the Indigetes, 
or deified men : and then that he 
enumerates one of the chief of each 
order. For we find that V^esta is a 
principal tutelary goddess of Rome; 
and Romulus is one of the chief of 
the Indigetes, being the founder of 
the city. 

49.9. Tuscum Tiberim.'] The Ty- 
ber is so called, because it rises in 
Etruria. 

Romana palatia.'] It was on the 
Palatine hill that Romulus laid the 
foundation of Rome. Here he kept 
his court, as did also Augustus Cae- 
sar; hence the word Palatium came 
to signify a royal seat or palace. 

500. Juvenem.] He means Au- 
gustus Caesar, who was then a young 
man, being about twenty-seven 
P 



106 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



alrt-ady have we paid suffi- 
ciently witli oiir blood for the 
perjury of Laomedon's Troy. 
Already, O Caesar, does the 
palace of Leaven envy us thy 
reign, and lament that thou 
still regardest human tri- 
umphs. For here right and 
wrong are confounded ; there 
are so many wars throughout 
the world; so many sorts of 
wickedness; the due honours 
are not paid to the plough; 
the husbandmen are carried 
awas', and the fields lie neg- 
lected, and the crooked sickles 
are beaten into cruel swords. 
Here Euplirates, and there 
Germany, makes war; the 
neighbouring cities break 
their leagues, and wage war 
with each other; impious 
Mars rages all over the globe. 
Thus when the four horsed 
chariots pour forth from the 
barriers, they increase their 
swiftness in llie ring, and the 
charioteer vainly pulls in the 
reins. 



Ne prohibete. Satis jampridem sanguine nostro 
Laomedonteae luimus perjuria Trojae. 502 

Jampridem nobis caeli»te regia, Caesar, 
Invidet, atque hominum queritur curare trium- 

phos. 
Quippe ubi fas versum atque nefas: tot bella 

per orbem : 505 

Tam multae scelerum facies : non uUus aratro 
Dignus honos : squalent abductis arva colonis, 
Et curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem. 
Hinemovet Euphrates, illinc Germania bellum: 
Vicinae ruptis inter se legibus urbes 510 

Arma ferunt : sasvit toto Mars impius orbe. 
Ut cum carceribus sese efFudere quadrigae, 
Addunt in spatio, et frustra retinacula tendens 



years of age, when Virgil began his 
Georgicks, which he is said to have 
finished in seven years. But Mr. 

B and Dr. Trapp seem not very 

exact, who call him a youth in their 
translations. 

502. LaomedontecB luimus perjuria 
Trojce.] Laomedon, king of Troy, 
when he was building a wall round 
his city, hired the assistance of Nep- 
tune and Apollo, and afterwards de- 
frauded them of the reward he had 
promised. 

506. Non ullus aratro dignus 
honos.] Here again the Poet slides 
beautifully into his subject. When 
he is speaking of the whole world's 
being in arras, he expresses it by 
saying the husbandmen are pressed 
into the service, the fields lie neg- 
lected, the plough is slighted, and 
the instruments of agriculture are 
turned into swords. 

508. Et curves rigidum falces con- 
jlaniur in ensem.'] We have an ex- 
pression much like this in the pro- 
phet Joel ; " Beat your plough- 
** shares into swords, and your 
*' pruning hooks into spears." 



509. Hinc movet Euphrates, illinc 
Germania helium.'] This part of the 
Georgicks must have been written, 
whilst Augustus and Anthony were 
drawing together their forces, to 
prepare for that war, which was 
decided by the defeat of Anthony 
and Cleopatra, at Actiura. An- 
thony drew his forces from the east- 
ern part of the empire, which 
Virgil distinguishes by the river 
Euphrates ; Augustus drew his from 
the western parts, which he ex- 
presses by Germany. 

510. Vicince ruptis inter se.] The 
Cambridge manuscript has Vicince 
inter se ruptis jam. 

512. Ut cum carceribus sese effu- 
dere quadrigce.'] Thus Horace : 

Ut cum carceribus missos rapit ungtda 
currus. 

5\S. Addunt in spatio.] This pas- 
sage is variously read, and almost as 
variously interpreted. Some read 
addunt se in spatio, which is not very 
easy to be understood. Both the 
Arundelian manuscripts, and seve- 
ral printed editions, have addunt se 



GEORG. LIB. I. 



107 



Fertur equis auriga, neque audit currus habenas. Jofsil, *i?o?*'doe*3"'t1?'e cL 



but h canied away 
horses, nor does " 
regard the bridle. 



the 
ariot 



in spatia. But se is left out in the 
King's, the Cambridge, the Bod- 
leian, and both Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts; also in the Medicean, and 
several other ancient manuscripts, 
according to Pierius. La Cerda en- 
deavours to prove that spatium sig- 
nifies the turning round the melaj 
which was usually performed seven 
times; and that addere se in spatia 
or addere in spatia signifies the often 
turning round, and adding one 
circle to another. But Virgil seems 
to me to mean by spatium the whole 
space that was allotted for the course. 
Thus, at the end of the second 
Georgick, where he alludes to a 
chariot- race, he says. 



- Immensum 
aequor. 



spatiis confecimus 



which can relate only to the vast 
circumference of the whole ring. 
That passage in the third Georgick 
is to be understood in the same 
manner, where he is speaking of a 
good horse : 

Hie vel ad Elei nietas et maxima campi 
Sudabit spatia. 

In the fifth ^neid, where he de- 
scribes the foot race, spatium is evi- 
dently used for the whole ring : for 
we find that the moment they starts 
they enter the spatia : 

— — LoGum capiunt, signoque repente 
Corripiunt spatia audito, limenque relin- 

quunt 
Effusi. 

If adduni se in spatia be the right 



reading, I should rather think it 
means they enter the ring, which is 
the meaning of corripiunt spatia or 
campum, as he expresses it in the 
third Georgick : 

Cum praecipiti certamine campum 

Corripuere, ruuntque effusi carcere cur- 
rus. 

Heinsius and Ruaeus, whom I have 
followed, read addunt in spatio: 
which I take to signify they increase 
their swiftness in the ring, or run 
faster and faster. In this sense 
Grimoaldus has paraphrased this 
passage: " Quemadmodum tamen 
" equorum plus plusque currendo 
" cursus augetur." May's transla- 
tion is according to this reading : 

So when swift chariots from the lists 

are gone, 
Their furious haste increases as they run. 

Dryden's seems to have much the 
same meaning : 

So four fierce coursers starting to the 

race. 
Scour thro* the plain, and lengthen ev^ry 

pace. 

Mr. B reads addunt se in spatia, 

and translates it thus : 

As when the cars swift pouring thro' the 

race. 
Encounter furious on the dusty space. 

Dr. Trapp translates it according to 
La Cerda' s interpretation : 

As when the racers from their barriers 

start, 
Oft whirling round the goal. 



p2 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 

GEORGICORUM 



LIBER SECUNDUS. 



Thus far of the culture of 

HACTENUS carvorum cultus, et sidera caeli: Ktlonf of^'aveV?^Zfo 

Bacchus, will I sing of thee. 

Nunc te, Bacche, canam, nee non sylvestria l^f^^^^^ ^^^^ «'««' "^ ^"<* 
tecum 



1. Hactenus arvorum, &c.] The 
poet begins this book with a brief 
recapitulation of the subject of the 
first : he then declares that of the 
second book to be vines, olives, and 
wild trees and shrubs; and invokes 
Bacchus to his assistance. 

2. Nee non sylvestria tecum, &c.] 
" This introduction the commen- 
" tators have not sufficiently taken 
" into their consideration, and for 
'* want of thoroughly explaining it, 
** it is not easy, for every reader, to 
"reconcile the conclusion of this 
'* book with the beginning of it. 
*' Virgil begins with these words, 
*' Nunc te, Bacche, canam; but 
•' about the latter end of the book, 
** he prefers olives and fruit, and 
" timber trees, and even shrubs, to 
*' the vine itself: 

Quid memorandu7n oeque Baccheia dona 
tulerunt ? 

" This is not easily understood, 
"^ without observing in how particu- 
" lar a manner the poet, immedi- 
" ately after Nunc te Bacche canam, 
'' adds. Nee non sylvestria tecum 



" Virgulta, Sfc. The reason of which 
" I, conceive to be this. Virgil, in 
" order to raise the dignity of the 
" verse, in this place, above that 
'' of the proposition, in the first 
" Georgick, as he there makes use 
" of a figure, by employing sydere 
" instead of tempore, so here he 
" chooses a nobler figure, by the 
" apostrophe he makes to Bacchus; 
" and in the third book, he uses the 
" same figure, for the same purpose, 
" three times in the two first lines. 
" But this expression, nunc te, Bac- 
" che, canam, having the air of a 
" Bacchique piece, which was not 
" by any means the poet's intention, 
" he immediately gives it another 
" turn, by declaring he will cele- 
" brate equally with Bacchus, that 
" is, the vine, every twig of the 
" forest. This seems to be Virgil's 
"meaning, and this made the sub- 
" ject worthy of Virgil. He under- 
" takes to disclose all the bounties 
" of nature in her productions of 
" trees, and plants, and shrubs ; 
" and this he does from the vine to 
" the furze." Mr. B . 



no 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and the ofifspring of the slow 
growing olive. Come hither, 
O father Lenaens : here all is 
full of thy gifts; for thee the 
field flourishes, laden with 
viny aatumn, and the vint- 
ze foams with fall vats, 
hither, O father Le- 
naeas; and take off thy 



age 
Ck>E 



Virgulta, et prolem tarde crescentis olivse. 
Hue, pater O Lenaee : tuis hie omnia plena 
Muneribus ; tibi pampineo gravidus autumno 5 
Floret ager, spumat plenis vindemia labris. 
Hue, pater O Lenaee, veni; nudataque musto 



3. Tarde crescentis olives.'] The 
ancient Greek writers of agriculture 
speak of the olive as a very slow 
grower; whence they have given it 
the epithets of h-^iyA^tg, o-t^Uet^Tros, 
o^i<eXx?-*i9, o->i/t»v^^. Pliny quotes 
a passage from Hesiod, wherein he 
says, that the planter of an olive 
never lived to gather the fruit of it; 
but he adds, that in his time they 
planted olives one year, and ga- 
thered the fruit the next: "Hesi- 
" odus quoque in primis cultum 
" agrorum docendam arbitratus 
'* vitam, negavit Oleae satorum 
'' fructum ex ea percepisse quen- 
*' quam. Tarn tarda tunc res erat. 
" At nunc etiam in plantariis serunt, 
" translatarumque altero anno de- 
" cerpuntur baccae." But Hesiod 
no doubt spake of sowing the seeds 
of the olive; which will take off 
Pliny's objection, who seems to 
mean the transplanting of the trun- 
cheons. Varro mentions also the 
slow growth of olives; but it is plain 
that he speaks of sowing them ; and 
therefore he observes that it is a 
better way to propagate them by 
truncheons : " Palma et cupressus, 

" et Olea in crescendo tarda 

" Simili de causa Oleae semen cum 
" sit nucleus, quod ex eo tardius 
" enascebatur colis, quam e taleis, 
" ideo potius in seminariis taleas, 
" quas dixi, serimus." It is not 
improbable that the ancient Gre- 
cians were unacquainted with any 
other method of propagating olives, 
than by sowing them : and, as Mr. 
Miller informs me, they practise 
that method in Greece to this day. 
This might occasion those epithets. 



mentioned at the beginning of this 
note. Hence also Virgil might 
make use of the epithet slow grow- 
ing; though in his time they had a 
quicker way of propagating olives. 
4. Pater Lencee.'] Bacchus is pe- 
culiarly called Pater; thus Horace: 

Romulus et Liher Pater, et cum Castore 
Pollux. 

Virgil very judiciously makes use of 
the name Lenceus for Bacchus in this 
place, Lenasus being derived from 
A»j»of, a wine-press. 

In one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts 
this verse begins with nunc instead 
of hue. 

Hie.'] In one of the Arundelian 
manuscripts it is sunt: La Cerda 
reads haec. 

Tuis muneribus.] Bacchus is said 
to have been the inventor of wine. 
This gift is ascribed to him at the 
beginning of the first Georgick: 

Liber et alma Ceres, vestro si mimere 

tellua 
Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arista, 
Poculaque inventis Achtloia miscuH urns, 

7. Hue] It is 7iunc again, in Dr. 
Mead's manuscript. 

Nudataque musto Sfc.] This alludes 
to the custom, frequent even now, 
in Italy and other places, of treading 
out the grapes with their feet. Bac- 
chus is represented frequently with 
buskins. Thus we find in Tacitus, 
that Silius wore buskins in imitation 
of Bacchus : " At Messallina non 
" alias solutior hiKu, adulto autum- 
" no, simulacrum vindemiae per do- 
" mum celebrat; urgeri preela, fluere 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



Ill 



Tinge novo mecum direptis crura cothurnis. me^fnew ^[lusLlnTetS 

_... iM ... f f\ place the ways Of producing 

Prmcipio, arboribus varia est natura creandis : U trees are various: for some 

r ^ come up of tlieir own accord, 

Namque alias, nullis hominum cogentibus, ipsae kind""i!nd*'wiidy"ovmprea(i 

. the plains and winding nvers; 

Sponte sua veniunt, camposque et numma late 



" lacus, et feminse pellibus accinctae 
" assultabant, ut sacrificantes vel 
" insanientes Bacchae : Ipsa crine 
" fluxo, thyrsum quatiens, juxtaque 
'' Silius hedera vinctus, gerere co- 
" thurnos, jacere caput, strepente 
" circum procaci choro." Velleius 
Paterculus also tells us^ that Mark 
Anthony would have himself be 
called a new Father Bacchus, and 
was carried at Alexandria in a cha- 
riot, like Father Bacchus, crowned 
with ivy, adorned with a golden 
crown, holding a thyrse, and wear- 
ing buskins : '' Cum ante, novum 
" se Liberum Patrem appellari jus- 
'• sisset, cum redimitus hederis, co- 
" ronaque velatus aurea, et thyrsum 
" tenens, cothurnisque succinctus, 
" curru, velut Liber Pater, vectus 
" esset Alexandriae. 

" In the introduction, where Vir- 
" gil makes an apostrophe to Bac- 
" chus, Mr. Dry den makes one to 
" his Muse ; and where Virgil seri- 
" ously desires Bacchus to partake 
'^ of the labour of treading the 
''grapes, which comprehends the 
" whole subject, as to the vine, Mr. 
*' Dryden falls into a most extra- 
" vagant rant. 

Come iirip with me, my God, cotne drench 

all 0*67' 

Thy iimhs in mmt of wine, and drink at 
ev*ry pore* 

" than which lines nothing was ever 
*' writ by man more wide from the 
*' author's sense or character; nei- 
" ther should it pass unobserved in 
*' how shocking a manner the ex- 
*' pression, viy God, is put in tlie 
" mouth of a heathen poet, address- 
" ing himself to a heathen deity. 



" which I do not believe was 
" ever done in any place but this." 
Mr. B— . 

9. Principio, arboribus &c.] The 
poet begins with an account of the 
several methods of producing trees : 
and first he speaks of the three ways, 
by which they are produced without 
culture i spontaneously, by seeds, 
and by suckers. 

Virgil in this place plainly imi- 
tates Theophrastus, who, at the be- 
ginning of the second book of his 
history of plants, says, '' The gene- 
'' ration of trees and plants in ge- 
" neral is either Spontaneous, or 
''by seed, or by root, or by suck- 
'* ers, or by sets, or by cuttings of 
*' the young shoots, or by layers, or 
« even by cutting the wood into 
'* small pieces : for that way also a 
" plant will rise. Among these the 
** spontaneous generation seems to 
\' be the principal : and those which 
" are by seed and root appear the 
'' most natural : for they are in a 
'' manner spontaneous j and there- 
" fore suit with wild plants; where- 
*'as the rest are procured by the 
" art and industry of man." At 
Ttn<niq rm ^£v^gA»v Tcoct oXas rm ^vrm, 
lit uvrofAotrai, li utto <r7n^fAurog, « UTro 
fi^ns, >l 01710 'ffec^etcTTrct^og , Hi utto uk^s- 
(Aovoq, \i UTTo KXcifyogy tj utt ecvTov rov 

'S'iXi^OVS Wiv, « iTl rev %VX0V KXTUKOfTiV- 

r»r rovrcitv ^£ « f^lv etvTof^etrcg wgarn 

Tig. J) ^g UTTO TTTi^fAeCTOg XUt |I/^»J?, (^V- 

(TiKOiTetroti ^o^utiv uv OJTTS^ yet^ uvro- 
fjcetrci KX( ctvrxi. 010 Kxi to7$ uygUig 
v7rei^^ova-iv , ul ^e xXheti ri^vi^g, 1) uttI 
TT^oxt^zs-iug. 

11. Sponie sua veniunt.'] Though 
the spontaneous generation of plants 



112 



r. VIRGILII MARONIS 



binding "bfoomTthe'SopUr! Curva tcnent ; ut molle siler, lentaeque genistas, 

and the willow with ho:iry .p» , ,-, ,-r> i t . ia 

bluish leaves. Some are pro- I'opulus, et ffiEuca caneiitia ironcle salicta. lO 

duced by seeds; as the lofty *■ ■> o 

Pars autem posito surgunt de semine ; ut altae 



is now sufficiently exploded ; yet it 
was universally believ^ed by the 
ancient philosophers. Instances of 
this are frequent in Aristotle, Pliny, 
and many others. 

12. Siler.] I have followed the 
general opinion, in translating Siler, 
an osier. I do not meet with any 
thing certain, in the other Latin 
writers, to determine exactly what 
plant they meant, Pliny says only, 
that it delights in watery places : 
whence I wonder that Caesalpinus 
should imagine it to be the Euony- 
mus Theophrasii, or Spindle-tree 
which grows usually in hedges. La 
Cerda fancies it to be the Siler mon- 
ianum, or Sermouniain, because he 
thinks it more elegant for the poet 
to speak of two which grow in the 
plains, and two in the rivers. But 
this seems too trifling an exactness, 
to be worth insisting upon : and 1 
do not find any other Siler, to be 
mentioned in any ancient Latin 
author, but that which grows in the 
water. 

Lentoeque gefiisice.'] I take the 
Genista to be what we call Spanish 
broom, which grows in great plenty, 
in most parts of Italy. The Itali- 
ans weave baskets of its slender 
branches. The flowers are very 
sweet, last long, and are agreeable 
to bees. This agrees with what 
Virgil says of it afterwards in this 
Georgick : 

Salices humilesque Genista', 

Aut illae pecori frondem, aut pastoribus 

umbrain 
Sufficiunt; sepemque satis, et pabula 

melli. 

What Pliny says of the Genista 
agrees very well with the Spanish 
broom. In lib. xxi. c. 9. he says it 



has a yellow flower, and is used in 
garlands : " Transeat ratio ad eas 
" coronas, quae varietate sola pla- 
" cent. Duo earum genera, quando 
'' aliae flore constant, alise folio. 
" Florem esse dixerim Genistas : 
" namque et iis decerpitur luteus." 
In lib. xxiv. c. 9« he says the seed 
grows in pods, like kidney -beans : 

" Semen in folliculis, 

" Phaseolorum modo, nascens :" 
and that the plant is used for withs 
to bind; and that the flowers are 
agreeable to bees : " Genista quo- 
'^ que vinculi usum praestat. Flores 
" apibus gratissimi." In lib. xvi. 
c. 1 8. he says it is used in dying : 
" Tingendis vestibus nascentes Ge- 
" nistae." I do not know that the 
broom is ever used by our dyers : 
but another plant of the same kind 
is much in use : they call it wood- 
wax, and green weed. It is the 
Coroneola of Caesalpinus : and is 
called by other authors Genista 
linctoria, Genistella tinctoria, and 
Tinctorius Jlos. I doubt not, but 
the Spanish broom might be used 
for the same purposes. 

13. Populus.'] This no doubt is 
the poplar, of which, according to 
Pliny, there are three sorts : the 
white, the black, and the Lybian, 
which is our asp : ** Populi tria ge- 
" nera, alba, nigra, et quae Lybica 
" appellatur, minima folio, ac niger- 
'' rima, fungisque enascentibus lau- 
" datissima." 

Glauca canentia fronde Salicta. 1 
This is a beautiful description of the 
common willow : the leaves are of a 
bluish green ; and the under side 
of them is covered with a white 
down. He uses Salictiim or Sali- 
cetum, the place where willows grow, 
for Salices, the trees themselves. 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



113 



Castaneae, nemorumque Jovi quae maxima fron- chesnuis, and the escuius, 

"■ ^ which has toe largest leaves 

jjg|. ]^5 ofall the groves of Jupiter, 



15. CaHanecB.'] The Castanea no 
doubt is our chesnut. Pliny de- 
scribes the fruit very plainly : " Nu- 
" ces vocamus et Castaneas, quan- 
*' quam accommodatiores glandium 
" generi : armatum iis echinato 
" calyce vallum, quod inchoatum 
'' glandibus." 

Nemorumque Jovi qua maxima 
frondet Escuius.'] It is no easy mat- 
ter to determine certainly w^hat the 
Escuius is. This is certain, that it 
is not our beech, as many have 
imagined, and as Dryden and Mr. 
B — have rendered it in their trans- 
lations. What has given occasion 
to this mistake is that Escuius seems 
to be derived from esca, food, as 
<Pnyog is from ^oiyu, to eat ; whence 
many learned authors have thought, 
and not without reason, that (piiyo? 
and Escuius are the same plant. 
This being supposed, it has been 
imagined that Fagus is only (p»jy«? 
expressed in Roman characters, and 
so that Escuius is the same with Fa- 
gus. It is very plain, from Pliny, that 
Fagus is the beech : " Fagi glans 
" nuclei similis, triangula cute in- 
" cluditur. Folium tenue, ac le- 
" vissimum, Populo simile." But 
it is no less plain that the Escuius 
is a sort of oak ; for Pliny reckons 
it amongst those trees which bear 
acorns: *' Glandem, quae proprie 
" intelligitur, ferunt Robur, Quer- 
" cus, Escuius, Cerrus, Ilex, Suber." 
Theophrastus also makes the ^nyos 
to be a species of oak. Thus the 
(p^yoi and Fagus are two different 
trees : the first being a sort of oak, 
and the other a beech. The Escuius 
as our poet describes it has large 
leaves; for that I take to be the 
sense of maxima frondet. Ovid also 
speaks of it, as a tree with abun- 
dance of large leaves : 



— Escu]ea f/oiidosuf. ab arbore ramus: 
and 



-Frondibus Escuius altis. 



Virgil speaks of it in another place 
of this Georgick, as a large, spread- 
ing tree, with a very deep root. See 
ver. 291. Pliny says the acorn of 
the Escuius is next in size and good- 
ness to that of the Quercus : " Glans 
" optima in Quercu atque gran- 
" dissima, mox Esculo." He says 
also that it is not so common in 
Italy as the Quercus: " Quippe 
" cum Robur, Quercumque vulgo, 
" nasci videamus, sed Esculum non 
** ubique." Horace however seems 
to speak of it as common in Dau- 
nia: 

Quale portentum neque militaris 
Daunia in latis alit Esculetis. 

The same poet represents the wood 
of the Escuius, as being very hard : 

Nee rigida mollior Esculo. 

This tree was sacred to Jupiter, 
thus Pliny : " 7\rborum genera nu- 
'' minibus suis dicata perpetuo ser- 
" vantur, ut Jovi Escuius." We 
find also in the same author, that 
the Romans made their civic crowns 
of it : " Civica iligna primo fuit, 
" postea magis placuit ex Esculo 
" Jovi sacra. Variatumque et cum 
" Quercu est, ac data ubique qua? 
'^ fuerat, custodito tantum honore 
" glandis." I think it not impro- 
bable that the Escuius may be that 
sort of oak, which is known in some 
parts of England under the name of 
the bay-oak. It has a broad, dark- 
green, firm leaf, not so much si- 
nuated about the edges, as that of 
the common oak. It is called by 
C. Bauhinus Quercus latifolia mas, 
qtfce brevi pediculo est. In the com- 
Q 



114 



P VIRGILII MARONIS 



and the oaks which were re- 
puted oracular by the Greeks, 
others have a thick wood a- 
rising from their roots; as 
cherries, and elms; the little 
Parnassian bay also shelters 
itself under the great shade 
of its mother. Nature first 
shewed these ways : by these 
every kind of woods, and 
shrubs, and sacred groves 
flourishes. There are other 
ways, which experience it- 
self has found out by art. 



Esculus, atque habitae Graiis oracula quercus. 
PuUulat ab radice aliis densissima sylva ; 
Ut cerasis, ulmisque: etiam Parnassia laurus 
Parva sub ingenti matris se subjicit umbra. 
Hos natura modos primum dedit : his genus 
omne 20 

Sylvarum, fruticumque viret, nemorumque sa- 



crorum. 



Sunt alii, quos ipse via sibi repperit usus. 



mon oak, the acorns grow on long 
stalks, and the leaves have scarce 
any tail, but grow almost close to 
the branches: but in the bay-oak 
the acorns grow on short stalks and 
the leaves have long tails. They 
are both figured in C. Bauhinus's 
edition of Matthiolus. 

16. HabitcB Graiis oracula quer- 
cus.'] " It is very well known how 
'' fond the Romans were of their 
*' gods, and religious ceremonies, 
" and what a contempt they had 
*' for those of other nations. It is 
" in this manner Virgil uses hahitce 
*' Graiis oracula quercus : he smiles 
" at the Greeks, as he calls them, 
"for their superstition; but Mr. 
" Dryden unhappily applies this 
" passage seriously, in these words, 

" Where Jove of old oraculoiisly spoke." 

Mr. B 

18. Cerasis.'] Cherries were a new 
fruit amongst the Romans in Virgil's 
time. Pliny tells us they were 
brought from Pontus, by Lucullus, 
after he had subdued Mithridates : 
''^ Cerasi ante victoriam Mithrida- 
" ticam L. Luculli non fuere in 
" Italia. Ad urbis annum dclxxx. 
" Is primum vexit e Ponto, annisque 
" cxx trans Ocean um in Britanniam 
' ' usque pervenere," 

Ulmis.] Elms were in great re- 
quest amongst the ancients, they be- 



ing preferred before all other trees 
for props to their vines. Hence we 
find frequent mention of them 
amongst the poets. 

Parnassia Laurus.] The finest 
bay trees grew on mount Parnassus, 
according to Pliny : '* Spectatissima 
" in monte Parnasso." I have en- 
deavoured to prove, in the note on 
ver. 306, of the first Georgick, that 
the bay, and not the laurel, is the 
Laurus of the ancients. I shall add 
in this place, that the laurel is not 
so apt to propagate itself by suckers 
as the bay. 

20. Hos natura modus primum de- 
dit.] By this the poet means, that 
these are the ways, by which trees 
are naturally propagated, without 
the assistance of art. 

21. Frulicum.] The difference 
between a tree and a shrub is, that 
the tree rises from the root, with a 
single trunk, and the shrub divides 
itself into branches, as soon as it 
rises from the root. Thus Theo- 
phrastus : Asu^gey ftsv cvf i(rri to utto 
p/^ij5 f^ovoa-TiXi^ig , 'xoXvy.}<MOoi, o^urhf, 

OVK iVXTfoXvXvTtV' OiOf iXuteC . <rVK>), AflTTl- 

Xog. ^^vyxvov 21, to utfo p*^»3? ««i sro- 
At;o-Tg^8;te?, Keti TroXwcXx^of, oict {ixrog, 

TTXXlOV^Oi. 

22. Sunt alii, &c.] Having already 
mentioned the several ways by 
which plants naturally propagate 
their species ; he now proceeds to 
mention those methods, which are 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



Hie plantas tenero abscindens de corpore ma- 



trum 



Deposuit sulcis : hie stirpes obruit arvo, 
Quadrifidasque sudes, etacutorobore vallos : 25 
Sylvarumque alias presses propaginis arcus 



One ciils off tlic plants from 
tlie tender body ot their mo- 
ther, and puis them into the 
furrows: anollier plants sets 
in the field, either by splitting 
or sharpening the foot. Other 
trees expect the bent down 
arches of a layer, 



used by human industry. These 
are by suckers, sets, layers, cut- 
tings, pieces of the cleft wood, and 
ingrafting. 

Pierius says it is viam in the Lom- 
bard manuscript. If this reading 
be admitted the passage must be 
rendered thus : " There are other 
" methods which experience has 
*' found out to be its way." 

23. Plantas tenero abscindens de 
corpore matrum.'] In one of the 
Arundelian manuscripts it is Plantas 
teneras abscindens corpore matrum. 

In these words the poet plainly 
describes the propagation of plants 
by suckers. I take this to be what 
Theophrastus means by cctto ttu^x- 
trTFudog: The suckers are called Sto- 
lones, as Varro tells us, who adds 
that an ancestor of C. Licinius Stolo 
had the surname of Stolo, because 
he was very diligent in digging 
away the suckers from the roots of 
his trees. '^ Nam C. Licinium Sto- 
" lonem, et Cn. Tremelium Scrofam 
'* video venire, unum cujus majores 
" de modo agri legem tulerunt. 
" Nam Stolonis ilia lex, quse vetat 
'' plus D. jugera habere civem Ro- 
" manum, et qui propter diligentiam 
" culturse Stolonum confirmavit 
" cognomen, quod nullus in ejus 
" fundo reperiri poterat Stolo, quod 
** effodiebat circum arbores, e radi- 
" cibus, quae nascerentur e solo, 
" quos Stolones appellabant." Pliny 
calls this way of planting Avulsio, 
and uses avellere in the same sense, 
that Virgil here uses abscindere: 
'' Et aliud genus simile natura mon- 
" stravit, avulsique arboribus Sto- 
" lones vixere. Quo in genere et 



'* cum perna sua avelluntur, par- 
" temque aliquam e matris quoque 
'^ corpore auferunt secum fimbriato 
" corpore." 

24. Hie stirpes obniit arvo, quadri- 
fidasque sudes , et acuto rohore vallos.'] 
This is fixing the large branches, like 
stakes, into the earth. It is what 
Theophrastus calls utt ax^g^ovo?. 
Ruaeus divides this passage, and 
makes the stirpes obruit arvo to be 
one way of planting ; and the sudes 
and valli to be another. The first 
he takes to be stocks, the other sets. 

" This line," says Mr. B , 

" has very much puzzled the com- 
" roentators, but there is no great 
" difficulty in it, to any one that is 
" the least versed in husbandry, and 
" consequently knows that there 
" are two ways of planting setters. 
" The quadrifidas sudes is when 
" the bottom is slit across both 
" ways ; the acuto rohore is when it 
'• is cut into a point, which is called 
" the colt's-foot." 

26. Sylvaru7nque alice, &c.] This 
is propagating by layers ; which are 
called propagines. It, is to be ob- 
served, that, though we use the word 
propagation for any method of in- 
creasing the species, yet amongst 
the Roman writers of agriculture 
propagatio is used only for layers. 
The common method, which Virgil 
seems to mean, is exactly de- 
scribed by Columella. " When 
'^ you would lay down a branch, 
'' says he, from the mother tree, 
" dig a trench four feet every 
" way, so that the layer may not 
" be hurt by the roots of the other. 
" Then leave four buds, to come to 
q2 



116 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and to see a young nursery 
in their own earth. Others 
have no need of any root; 
and the planter makes no dif- 
ficulty to plant the young 
shoots in the groimrl. Nay, 
and what is wonderful, if yon 
cut the trunk of an olive in 
pieces, it will put forth new 
roots. 



Expectant, et viva sua plantaria terra. 
Nil radicis egent aliae ; summumque putator 
Haud dubitat terras referens mandare cacumen. 
Quin et caudicibus sectis, mirabile dictu, 30 
Truditur e sicco radix oleagina ligno. 



'' the bottom of the trench, and 
" strike roots : rub the buds off that 
" part which joins to the mother, 
*' to avoid superfluous shoots. Suf- 
"^ fer that part, which is to appear 
*' above ground, not to have above 
*' two or at most three buds. Rub 
'' off all the buds, except the four 
" lowest, from that part which is 
" put into the ground, that the vine 
*^ may not strike roots too near the 
" surface. If you propagate it in 
^' this manner, it will quickly take 
'^ root, and the third year you may 
'' separate it from the mother." 
Pliny tells us that nature first taught 
this method by the brarnble ; the 
branches of which are so slender 
that they fall to the ground, and 
make layers of their own accord : 
" Eadem natura et Propagines do- 
'' cuit. Rubi namque curvati graci- 
" litate, et simul proceritate nimia, 
'' defigunt rursus in terram capita, 
'' iterumque nascuntur ex sese, re- 
" pleturi omnia ni resistat cultura, 
'' prorsus ut possint videri homines 
" terrae causa geniti. Ita pessima 
'' atque execranda res, Propaginem 
" tamen docuit, atque radicem ac- 
" quiri viridem." This method of 
planting I take to be what Theo- 
phrastus means by <^;r' (/.vrtv rov a-iiXk- 

28. Nil radicis egent alice^ &c.] 
Here he plainly describes what we 
call cuttings. This is what Theo- 
phrastus means by aTro -AXmoq. It 
is cutting the young shoots of a 
tree, and planting them into the 
ground; whence V^irgil says they 
have no need of a root. They are 



called in Latin Surctdi. Thus we 
find them called by Varro : '' Ter- 
"^ tium genus Seminis quod ex ar- 
'' bore per Surculos defertur in ter- 
" ram, sic in huraum demittitur, ut 
" in quibusdam tamen sit videndum, 
" ut eo tempore sit deplantatum 
" quo oportet." 

SO. Quin et caudicibus sectis, &c.] 
He speaks of it justly as a wonder, 
that olive-trees should strike roots 
from dry pieces of the trunk. This 
is mentioned by Theophrastus ; rov 
|wAot» x.scrctK0'7riVT6$ itg ftiK^a. This 

sentence of Virgil has been fre- 
quently understood -to mean graft- 
ing : but of this he speaks imme- 
diately after. La Cerda says, that 
what the poet here speaks of was 
practised in Spain in his time. 
They take the trunk of an olive, 
says he, deprive it of its root and 
branches, and cut it into several 
pieces, which they put into the 
ground, whence a root, and soon 
afterwards a free is formed: *' Hunc 
" sextum raodum cum septirao con- 
" fundunt plurimi, et putant in his 
" caudicibus loqui Virgilium de In- 
'^* sitione, et una cum iUis Beroaldus. 
** Nihil unquam magis adversum 
'' menti Virgilii. Testes sunt oculi 
*' scientissiraorum agricolarum, a 
'^ quibus id quaesivi : testis ars ipsa, 
" quae nunc quoque in Hispania, 
'' ubi ego sum, viget. Secant agri- 
" colse, scinduntque in partes plures 
" caudicem Olivae, cui amputata ra- 
" dix, cui amputati rami : ita con- 
*' sectum infodiunt, ac inde format 
" se radix et mox arbor, quod poeta 
" stupet, quia vere mirura." 



GEORG. LIB. 11. 



117 



Et saepe alterius raraos impune videmus 
Vertere in alterius, mutatamque insita mala 
Ferre pyrum, et prunis lapidosa rubescere corna. 
Quare agite O proprios generatim discite ciiltus, 
Agricolffi, fructusque feros moUite colendo, 36 
Neu segues jaceant terrae. Juvat Ismara Baccho 
Conserere, atque Olea magnum vestire Tabur- 
num. 



And we often see the branches 
of one tree to turn with im- 
punity into those of another, 
and a pear tree being clianged 
to bear grafted apples, and 
stony Cornelian cherries to 
glow upon plum-stocks. 
Wherefore, O husbandmen, 
learn the culture which is 
proper to each kind, and 
learn to tame the wild fruits 
by cultivating them, that no 
land may lie idle. It is worth 
the while to plant Ismarus 
with vines, and to crown the 
great Taburnus with olives. 



32. Alterius ramos impune videmus 
vertere in alteriusr\ In this passage 
he plainly speaks of graftings, of 
which he subjoins two instances. 
This subject is farther explained, 
ver. 73. 

33. Mutatamque insita mala ferre 
Pyrum.'] He speaks of grafting ap- 
ples upon a pear stock, not of pears 
upon an apple- stock, as Dry den has 
translated it, who has added quinces 
also, though not in the original : 

Thus pears and quinces from the crab- 
tree come. 

Mntatam agrees with Pyrum; now 
it is the nature of the stock, not of 
the graft, that is changed: wherefore 
the pear must be the stock spoken 
of in this place. The apples are 
said to be insita, ingrafted, which 
fully explains the meaning of this 
passage. 

34. Prunis lapidosa rubescere cor- 
na.2 It is a doubt whether Virgil 
means, that cornels are ingrafted 
upon plum-stocks, or plums upon 
cornel -stocks. May takes it in the 
former sense: 

And hard red cornoiles from a slock of 
plumme : 

and Dr. Trapp : 

And on the plum's the stony cornel 
glow. 

Dryden takes it in the latter sense : 

And thus the ruddy cornel bears the 
plum : 



and Mr. B- 



And stony Cornells blush with blooming 
plums. 

I take the former to be the poet's 
meaning : for the Cornelian cherry 
is a fruit of so beautiful a red colour, 
that the cornel cannot properly be 
said to glow or redden with plums, 
which are not so red as its own na- 
tural fruit. Besides the epithet 
stony belongs very properly to the 
fruit of the cornel, not to the tree : 
wherefore if Virgil speaks of that 
fruit, he must mean the stock of the 
plum. Columella says the Cor- 
nelian cherries were used for olives ; 
" Corna, quibus pro olivis uta- 
" mur." 

37' Juvat Ismara Baccho conse- 
rere.~\ Ismarus is a mountain of 
Thrace, not far from the mouth of 
Hebrus. That country was famous 
for good wines. Ulysses speaks in 
commendation of some wine, which 
was given him by Maron, the priest 
of Apollo at Ismarus : 

• 'Ara:^ tttyiov atrxov e^ov fAtkxvot 

o'lvoio 
'H^saf , 09 fioi s^uKS Ma^av EvdvB-ios vlas 



ok a goat-skin fill'd with pre-->w 
js wine, | 

of Maron. of Evantheus' line, - > 
ist of Phoebus at th' Ismarian | 
ine. -y 



Then took a goat-skin fill'd with pre- 
cious 

The gift 

The priest 
shrine. 

Mr. Pope. 

38. Olea magnum vestire Tahur- 
«M7W.] Taburnus is a mountain of 



118 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



And do thon, O Maecenas, 
assist me, an(t bear a part of 
the labour which I have be- 
gun, thou, who art my glory, 
and justly the greatest part of 
my fame, and flying spread 
the sails to the open sea. I 
do not hope to contain in my 
verses all that could be said 
on this subject; 



Tuque ades, inceptumque una decurre laborem, 
O decus, O famae merito pars maxima nostrae, 
Maecenas, pelagoque volans da vela patenti. 41 
Non ego cuncta meis amplecti versibus opto : 



Campania, which was very fruitful 
in olives. It is now called Taburo, 

39. Tuque ades, &c.] The poet 
having invoked Bacchus, and pro- 
posed the subject of this Book, now 
calls upon his patron Maecenas, to 
give him his assistance. 

" This allegory, says Ruaeus, is 
" generally thought to allude to the 
" Cirque, which opinion is strength- 
'•' ened by the last verses of this 
" book : 

" Sedjam tempus equum fumantia solvere 
" colla, &c. 

" but I think that this and the fol- 
" lowing lines allude to Navigation. 
" And indeed the verb decurro is 
" used with water ; thus Catullus ; 

" Ausi sunt vada salsa cita decurrere puppi. 
" And Virgil, in the fifth ^neid ; 

" Prona petit maria et pelago decurrit 
" aperio.''* 

40. decus, OfamoB merito pars 
maxima nostrce."] " In some ancient 
" manuscripts it is nostri: if this be 
" admitted, we must necessarily 
" read, as some think it should be, 

" O decus, Ofama, et merito pars maxima 
" nostri. 

" But in the Medicean and other 
" correct copies it is Jamce nostroe. 

" The reading in some copies 

" is extravagant, 

" O Beus, O famce merito pars maxiina 
" nostroe. 

" Surely it is better to read decus 
" with Horace, 

" O et prcesidium, et duke decus meum." 

PlERIITS. 



41. Pelagoque volans da vela pa- 
tenti.'] Several commentators take 
these words to signify, that the poet 
begs Maecenas to favour him : " Sim- 
" plici generi carminis praesta favo- 
" rem : ut Vela favorem accipia- 
" mus," says Servius. ** Ut Mae- 
" cenas favoris vela explicet, aspi- 
" rans in patenti pelago totius 
" opens," says La Cerda. But if 
we carefully consider the poet's de- 
sign in the whole passage now be- 
fore us, we shall find, that by da 
vela pelago, he does not mean fa- 
vour my undertaking, but set sail or 
embark rvith me : as two lines before 
he had desired him to join with 
him in the labour he had under- 
taken : " inceptumque una decurre 
" laborem." By Pelago patenti 
Ruaeus thinks he means an open 
sea, not shut up with winds. I be- 
lieve he uses that metaphor to ex- 
press the copiousness of his subject, 
comparing the immensity of his 
undertaking to that of the ocean. 
For he adds immediately, that Mae- 
cenas may not be discouraged by 
the vastness of the labour, that he 
has no intent to aim at comprehend- 
ing the whole in his Poem, and in- 
deed, that, if he had such a design, 
it would be impossible. 

42. Non ego cuncta meis.'] We 
have an expression like this in the 
second Iliad. Homer, when he is 
drawing up the Grecian army, says 
he should not be able to recite all 
their numbers, though he had ten 
tongues, and ten mouths, a voice 
not to be broken, and a heart of 
brass : 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



119 



Non, mihi si linguae centum sint, oraque centum, 
Ferrea vox. Ades, et primi lege littoris oram: 
In manibus terrae : non hie te carmine ficto, 45 
Atque per ambages, et longa exorsa tenebo. 
Sponte sua quae se tollunt in luminis oras, 



not though I had a hundred 
tongues, a hundred mouths, 
and a voice of iron. Assist 
me, and coast along the near- 
est shore: the land is in sight: 
I will not here detain you 
with poetical fiction, and cir- 
cumlocutions, and long pre- 
ambles. Those, which spring 
spontaneously into the open 



OwS* «*/6«« ifxa /Av yXuffffai, Ss'xa ^l ^ofi,aT' 
tTsv, 

tvtit], 

44. Primi lege littoris oram.'] This 
expression, of coasting near the 
shore, is thought to contradict the 
open sea just now mentioned : but 
I believe what I have said in the 
note on ver. 41. will reconcile this 

seeming contradiction. Mr. B 

would have primi altered to the ad- 
verb primo; and indeed it is jorf- 
jnum in the King's manuscript, but 
there seems to be no occasion for 
this alteration. Lego in naval affairs 
is always used in Latin for coasting, 
whence, as La Cerda observes, pe- 
lagus legere, which some write, is 
barbarous. 

45. Non hie te carmine ficto, &c.] 
" Ruaeus and Mr. Dry den under- 
" stand non hie te carmine ficto rela- 
*' tively to the whole work in ge- 
" neral ; but it is plain, Virgil con- 
" fines it to his invocation, non hie, 
" not in this place. The conclusion 
" seems to carry with it some kind 
" of reflection upon the common 
'' tedious forms of invocation, 
" which, it is probable, Maecenas 
" had been often tired with." Mr. 
B . 



47. Sponte sua, &c.] The poet 
had before mentioned the three ways 
by which wild trees are produced; 
spontaneously, by roots, and by 
seeds. Here he mentions them 
again, and shews by what culture 
each sort may be meliorated. 

Oras.'] So I read it with Heinsius, 
and La Cerda : it is commonly read 
in luminis aiu'as. This last author 



observes that in luminis oras is a fre- 
quent expression amongst the poets: 
thus Ennius : 

O Romule, Romule die, O 

Qualem te patriae custodem Di genue- 

runt? 
Tu produxisti nos inter luminis oras. 

And Lucretius : 

Nee sine te quicquain dias in luminis oras 
Exoritur. 

And 

At nunc seminibus quia certis quidque 

creatur, 
Inde enascitur, atque oras in luminis exit, 
Materies ubi inest cujusque et corpora 

prima. 

And 



-Vivida tellus 



Tuto res teneras effert in luminis oras* 
And 



Miscetur funere vagor. 



Quern pueri tolJunt visentes luminis oras. 

And 

Significare volunt indignos esse putandos, 
Vivam progeniem qui in oras luminis 
edant. 

And 

Turn porro puer, ut saevis projectus ab 

undis 
Navita, nudus humi jacet, infans, indi- 

gus omni 
Vitali auxilio, cum primum in luminis 

oras 
Nixibus ex alvo matris natura profudit. 

And 

Nunc redeo ad mundi novitatem, et 

moUia terrae 
Arva, novo foetu quid primum in lu7nims 

oras 
Tollere, et incertis tentarit credere ventis. 



120 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



are unfmitfol imleed, but fair 
and strong: for nature lies 
bid in the soil. Yet tliese if 
yea graft them, or change 
them Dy piitiing them into 
well prepared trenches, will 
put off their wild nature, and 
fay frequent cnitnre wilt be 
not slow to obey any disci- 
pline. And those also, which 
arise barren from the bottom 
of the plant, will do the same, 
if 3'ou transplant them into 
the open fields. For the high 
shoots and branches of the 
mother overshadow them, 
and liinder them from bear- 
ing fruit, as they grow up; 
and scorch it when they bear 
any. The tree which arises 
from seed, grows slowly, and 
will spread a shade for late 
posterity. 



Infoecunda quidem, sed laeta et fortia surgunt : 
Quippe solo natura subest. Tamen haecquo- 
que si quis 49 

Inserat, aut scrobibus mandet mutata subactis, 
Exuerint sylvestrem animum : cultuque fre- 
quent! 
In quascunque voces artes, baud tarda sequen- 

tur. 
Nee non et sterilis, quae stirpibus exit ab imis. 
Hoc faciet, vacuos si sit digesta per agros. 
Nunc altae frondes, et rami matris opacant, 55 
Crescentique adimunt foetus, uruntque ferentem. 
Jam, quae seminibus jactis se sustulit arbos, 
Tarda venit, seris factura nepotibus umbram. 



And 

Sic unum quicquid paullatim protrahil 

setas 
In medium, ratioque in lutninis erait 

oras. 

Thus also our poet himself, in the 
seventh Mneid : 



' Quera Rhea sacerdos 



Furtivum pariu sub luminis edidit oras. 

Though here also many editors read 
auras. Fulvius Ursinus looks upon 
the passage now under consideration 
to be an imitation of that line in 
Lucretius : 

Sponte sua nequeunt liquidas existere in 
auras. 

49. Quippe solo natura subest.'] 
Some understand solo to mean the 
root of the tree : others interpret it 
the soil or earth, in which it grows. 
By nature's lying hid in the soil, the 
Poet seems to mean, that there is 
some hidden power in the earth, 
which causes it to produce particular 
plants, which therefore grow fair 
and strong in that soil, which is 
adapted to give them birth. 



Tamen hoec quoque si quis, &c.] 
The way to tame these luxuriant 
wild trees, is to ingraft a good fruit 
upon them, or to transplant them. 

50. Inserat.'] Some have imagined 
erroneously that Virgil means that 
their branches should be ingrafted 
upon other trees ; but this is con- 
trary to practice. Inserere arborem 
signifies not only to ingraft that tree 
upon another, but also to ingraft 
another upon the stock of that. 

52. Voces.] Pierius says that some 
ancient manuscripts have voles, and 
some velis ; but that voces is most 
approved by the learned. 

56. Crescentique. "2 In the King's 
and Cambridge manuscripts it is 
crescentesque. If this reading be ad- 
mitted, we must render this passage, 
" and destroy the growing fruits, 
" and scorch the plant which bears 
" them." 

57. Jam.] In the Cambridge, 
and one of the Arundelian manu- 
scripts, and in some old printed edi- 
tions, it is nam. 

58. Nepotibus.] Fulvius Ursinus 
contends, contrary to the opinion of 
all the other commentators, that by 



GEORG. LIH. II. 



1^1 



Poniaque degencrant succos oblita priores : 

Et turpes avibus praedam fert uva racemos. 6o 

Scilicet omnibus est labor irapendendus, et 

omnes 
Cogendae in sulcum, ac multa mercede do- 

mandae. 
Sed truncis Oleae melius, propagine Vites 



And apples degenerate, for- 
getting their totiner juices: 
and the vine bears sorrv clus- 
ters, n food for birds. There- 
fore l.ibour must be bestowed 
on them all, and all must be 
removed into trenches, and 
tamed with much expence. 
But olives succeed bert by 
truncheons, vines by layers. 



Nepotes Virgil meant the late pos- 
terity of the tree, which he thinks 
is more poetical, and more worthy 
of Virgil, than the common inter- 
pretation. 

59' Pomaque degeneranL^ Some 
take poma to mean the fruit of the 
tree just mjentioned: and indeed 
the ancients seem to have used pu- 
mum not only for an apple, but for 
any esculent fruit. Others under- 
stand the poet to speak of the fruit 
of the apple-tree. Of the former 
opinion is La Cerda, who explains 
this passage thus : " Praeterea poma 
" harum arborum facile degenerant, 
" veluti oblita suam naturam et 
'^ succos." And Ruaeus, whose in- 
terpretation is in these words : *' Et 
" fructus ejus degenerant, amisso 
" priore sapore." Dryden also 
translates this line in the same 
sense. 

The geii'rous flavour lost, the fruits 
decay. 

And Dr. Trapp : 



Its fruit degen'rous proves. 



Losing its native juices. 

Grimoaldus is of the latter opi- 
nion, whose paraphrase runs thus : 
" Queraadmodum pirus abit in pi- 
'* rastrum, et mali dulces in amaras, 
" aliaeque in alias transeunt." May's 
translation also is in this sense: 

And apples lose the first good juice they 
had. 

And Mr. B— 's : 

Degenerate apples thus forget their taste. 



60. Turpes avibus prcedavi fert 
uva racemos.'] Uoa must be used 
here figuratively for the tree : for 
uva signifies the whole cluster of 
grapes as well as racemus, not a sin- 
gle grape, which is properly called 
acinus or vinaceitm. Thus, at the 
latter end of the fourth Georgick, 
we find uva used to express a swarm 
of bees hanging on the branches of 
a tree : 

Liquefacta bourn per viscera toto 

Stridere apes utero, ct ruptis effervere 

costis, 
Immensasque trahi nubes; jamque ar- 

bore suinma 
Confluere, et lentis uvam demittere ramis. 

63. Sed truncis y &c ] Here the 
poet speaks of the several ways of 
cultivating trees by human in- 
dustry : and gives us a no less just 
than beautiful description of the 
manner of inoculating and ingraft- 
ing. 

Servius, and after him most of 
the other commentators, think that 
what the poet says here of olives is 
a repetition of what he had said 
before : 

Qtiin et caudicibus seciis, mir.bile dictu ! 
Truditur e sicco radix oleagina ligtio. 

In the note on that passage, it is 
shewn, that Virgil speaks of a way 
of cutting the trunk of an olive-tree 
in pieces : and h6 mentions it as a 
wonder, that the roots should shoot 
from the dry wood. Here he speaks 
of the best way of propagating olives, 
which he says is by truncheons, 



1'^^ p. \ IRGILII MARONIS 

^iki woll;;!" '"^""' ''- "'' Respondent, solido Paphise de robore Myrtus, 



which are the thick branches sawn 
in pieces, of a foot or a foot and a 
half in length. These are to be 
planted as fresh as possible, not e 
sicco ligno. Columella, in the seven- 
teenth chapter of his book de Arbo- 
ribus, follows our poet in recom- 
mending the propagation of olives 
by truncheons : " Melius autem 
" irimcis quam plantis olivetum 
" constituitur." The ninth chapter 
of the fifth book of the same author 
is entirely on the culture of olives. 
I shall here set down his description 
of the tahcB or truncheons of olive- 
trees. " Turn ramos novellos, pro- 
*' ceros, et nitidos, quos compre- 
* ' hensos manus possit circum venire, 
* ' hoc est manubrii crassitudine fe- 
" racissimos arboribus adimito, et 
" ex his quam recentissimas taleas 
*' recidito, ita ut ne corticem, aut 
" uilam aliam partem, quam quae 
" serra praeciderit, laedas : hoc au- 
*' tem facile contingit, si prius va- 
'* ram feceris, et earn partem supra 
*' quam ramum secaturus es, foeno, 
" aut straraentis texeris, ut molliter, 
" et sine noxa corticis taleae super- 
*' positae secentur. Talete deinde 
** sesquipedales serra praecidantur, 
*' atque earum plagae utraque parte 
" falce leventur, &c." Here he says 
they ate to be cut to the length of a 
foot and half; but Cato recommends 
them to be no longer than one foot : 
" Taleas oleagineas, quas in scrobe 
" saturus eris, tripedaneas decidito, 
" diligenterque tractato, ne liber 
" laboret. Cum dolabis aut secabis, 
" quas in seminario saturus eris, pe- 
" dales facito." 

Triincus is properly a stock of a 
tree, divested of its head : hence 
these ialeco, or branches, with their 
heads cut off, are called trunci. The 
French derive their word troncon 
from iruncus ; and hence comes our 
word iruiicheon. 



The winters in England are gene- 
rally too severe, to suffer olive-trees 
to be planted in the open ground. 
The way of propagating them here 
is by laying down their tender 
branches, and taking them from the 
mother-plant in about two years. 
This method is so tedious, that most 
people choose to have them from 
Italy in the spring. They are 
usually planted in pots or cases, 
and removed into the green-house 
at the approach of winter. 

Propagine vites respondentr^ Vir- 
gil here recommends the propaga- 
tion of vines by layers : which is 
still practised. It is found by ex- 
perience to be a better way to pro- 
pagate them by cuttings ; the de- 
scription of which I shall take the 
liberty to set down, in the words of 
my judicious friend Mr. Miller: 
" You should always make choice 
'' of such shoots as are strong and 
" well ripened of the last year's 
" growth. These should be cut 
" from the old vine, just below the 
" place where they were produced, 
" taking a knot of the two years' 
" wood, which should be pruned 
" smooth, then you should cut off 
' ' the upper part of the shoot, so as 
" to leave the cutting about sixteen 
'^ inches long." This is the way 
which Columella recommends ; who 
calls this sort of cutting malleolus, 
because it bears no ill resemblance 
to a little hammer. I do not know 
that we have any proper English 
word for malleolus, though it is a 
cutting of a different nature from 
that which is usually taken from 
other trees. Columella mentions 
also the propagation of vines by 
layers, in his seventh book de Arbo^ 
ribus. 

64. Solido Paphice de robore Mt/r- 
tus.'] In one of the Arundelian ma- 
nuscripts it is melius instead of solido. 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



123 



Plantis edurae Coryli nascuntur, et ingens 65 '^^ ''and ''^h^'' free^'wilich 

T, • TT 1 1 1 spreads its Shade for the crown 

Fraxinus, Herculeaeque arbos umbrosa corona?, of nemiies, and the acorns 

^ ' of our Chaonian father, grow 

Chaoniique patris glandes : etiam ardua palma mmsTile^ioftV piTand^'tle 



The myrtles are called Paphian 
from Paphos a city of the island Cy- 
prus, where Venus was worshipped. 
The myrtle was sacred to that god- 
dess: see the note on ver. 28. of 
the first book. 

By solido de robore he seems to 
mean planting by sets. Thus Mr. 
B seems to understand him : 



•Myrtles by huge boughs. 



With us they are propagated by cut- 
tings, and removed into the green- 
house in winter. 

65. Flanlis edurce Coryli nasmm- 
iur."] By planlts the poet means 
suckers ; which is a method still in 
common practice : though it is now 
found to be a better way to propa- 
gate them by layers. 

I read edurce with Heinsius, and 
several other good editors. Servius 
reads et durce ; but he says that 
some read edurce, as it were non 
durce; like enodes for sine nndis. 
Pierius says that in some ancient 
manuscripts it is edurce, but in the 
greater part et durae. One of the 
Arundelian manuscripts has et durce, 
and the other edurce. The King's, 
the Cambridge, and the Bodleian 
manuscripts have et durce. Both 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts have edurce. 
Grimoaldus, Paul Stephens, La 
Cerda, Schrevelius, and several 
other editors read et dune, Ruaeus 
and many others read edurce. This 
last commentator interprets edurce, 
valde durce: and the hazel being 
a hard wood, this interpretation 
seems to be better than that of 
Servius. 

One of the Arundelian manu- 
scripts reads nascenlur, instead of 
nascuntur. 



66. Herculeceque arhos umbrosa 
coronce.'} The tree of Hercules was 
the poplar : thus Theocritus, in his 
second Idyllium : 



and our poet, in his seventh Eclogue; 

Populus Alcidae gratissima. 

It is certain that the poplar puts 
forth suckers in great abundance. 

67. Chaoniique patris glandes.'] 
See the note on ver. 8. of the first 
Georgick. The oak was sacred to 
Jupiter. 

Etinm.'] In both Dr. Mead's ma- 
nuscripts it is etjam. 

It must not be denied, that not- 
withstanding our poet seems to men- 
tion the oak, palm, and fir, as being 
propagated by suckers, yet these 
trees are never known to produce 
any, nor were they ever propagated 
any other way than by seeds. It 
has been suggested to me by an in- 
genious friend, that what Virgil 
says of suckers is terminated with 
the end of ver. 6Q, and that Chaonii 
patris glandes, ^'C signifies that 
" oaks grow from seeds, as does 
" also the lofty palm, and the fir, 
" which is to try the dangers of the 
" sea." I much question whether 
the words of our author can be 
brought to this sense, but I leave 
it to the determination of the learned 
reader. 

Ardua palma.] The palm (I be- 
lieve) has this epithet on account of 
its great height. Some think it is 
called ardua, because the honour o^ 
the palm is difficult to be obtained. 
Mr. Miller thinks it is called ardua, 
because " it is with diflicully propa- 
•' gated, and is of slow growthj so 

R 2 



1524 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



ff sei''B.7ttmgTeTa?- Nascitur, et casus abies visura marinos. 

bnte is iiicrafter) with the off- _ . *» Tk.T • -i i • i 

spring of the walnut-tree, Inscritur vcro cx loetu JNucis aiDUtus nornda. 



" that the persons who plant the 
" stones, seldom live to taste the 
" fruit of their labour." 

68. Casus abies visura marinos.'] 
The abies is owv yerv-leaved fir-tree. 
The wood of this tree was much 
used by the ancients in their ship- 
ping. 

QQ. Inseritur vero ex foetu nucis 
arbutus horrida.'] I believe there is 
no passage, in all the Georgicks, 
which has been more censured, than 
this about grafting : it being a re- 
ceived opinion, that no graft will 
succeed, unless it be upon a stock, 
which bears a fruit of the same 
kind. Hence this is looked upon 
as a mere poetical rant, to talk of 
grafting a walnut on an arbute, an 
apple on a plane, a beech on a ches- 
nut, a pear on a wild ash, and an 
oak on an elm. Whether the pre- 
sent art falls short of that of the 
ancients, or whether our climate 
will not admit of the same advan- 
tages, with the better air of Italy, 
I will not pretend to determine. 
But I shall endeavour to strengthen 
what our poet has said, by the au- 
thority of the best, the most expe- 
rienced, and the most judicious, 
prose writer on agriculture, amongst 
the ancients. Columella spends a 
whole chapter, in his book de Arho- 
ribus, in shewing how any cion 
may be grafted on any stock. I 
shall present the reader with a trans- 
lation of that entire chapter. " But 
" since the ancients have denied 
" that every kind of cion may be 
" ingrafted on every tree, and have 
" determined this as a perpetual 
*' law, that those cions only can 
" succeed, which are like in outer 
" and inner bark, and fruit, to those 
" trees on which they are ingrafted, 
'• we have thought it proper to re- 



" move this mistake, and deliver 
" to posterity the method by which 
" every kind of cion may be in- 
" grafted on every kind of tree. 
" But not to tire the reader with 
" a long preface, we shall give 
" one example, by following which 
" any one may ingraft whatso- 
" ever kind he pleases on any 
" tree. Make a trench four feet 
" every way from an olive-tree, of 
" such a length that the extremities 
" of the olive-branches may reach 
" it. Into this trench put a young 
'* fig-tree, and be careful that it be 
" fair and strong. After three or 
" five years, when it is sufficiently 
'' grown, bend down the fairest 
" branch of the olive-tree, and bind 
*' it to the fig-stock : and so cutting 
" off the rest of the branches, leave 
" only those which you would in- 
" graft. Then top the fig, smooth 
*' the wound, and cleave the middle 
" of the stock with a wedge. Then 
"■ shave the ends of the olive 
" branches on each side, whilst they 
" grow to the mother plant, and so 
" fit them to the cleft of the fig, 
" and take out the wedge, and bind 
'' them carefully, that they may not 
•' start back. Thus in three years' 
*' time the fig and olive will unite : 
*' and in the fourth year, when they 
" are well incorporated, cut the 
" olive branches from the mother 
*' in the same manner as you cut off 
" layers. By this method every 
" kind of cion is ingrafted upon 
" any tree." 

What I have here quoted is, I 
think, sufficient to justify what the 
poet has related. It cannot be ima- 
gined, that all he says is from his 
own experience : but it was cer- 
tainly thought in his time to be 
practicable. I shall now lay before 



GEORG. LIB. II. 125 

Et steriles platani malos gessere valentes : 70 S.Jg'IJSie^tre" :"'^' ''°'" 



the reader what may be said on the 
other side of the question, in the 
words of Mr. Miller, who has done 
me the favour to communicate the 
following observations. 

" The ancients used two different 
methods of grafting: the first is 
by approach; the other is what 
' the gardeners term clift-grafting. 
' It is the former method which 
' Columella has described, where 
' he directs the stock, on which the 
' graft is to be inserted, to be 
' planted so near the tree designed 
' to be propagatedj as that the 
' branches may be drawn down, 
' and inserted in the stock, without 
' being cut from the parent tree : 
' for he directs the letting it remain 
' two years before it is separated. 
' As to the different kinds of trees, 
' which are mentioned by the poet, 
' to be ingrafted on each other, I 
' dare affirm it was never practised 
' in any country : so that we must 
' either suppose the trees, which 
' now pass under tlie same appel- 
' lation, to be different from those 
' known at that time under such 
' names, or that it is a licence taken 
' by the poet to embellish his poem. 
' What Columella has said to con- 
' firm this, is no more than what 
we find in most books of hus- 
' bandry, both ancient and modern ; 
' in which the authors have too 
' frequently spent more time in ex- 
' plaining what they supposed 
' mysteries, than in relating the 
' practice of the most experienced 
' husbandmen. For suppose these 
' things were practicable, there 
' could no advantage arise from it 
' to the practitioner, and it would 
' be only a matter of curiosity, 
' to see the stock of one kind sup- 
' porting a tree of a very different 
* one. But all these sorts of trees 



" have been tried on each other, 
" not only in England, but also in 
" Italy J and from all the different 
" experiments which have been 
" made, it is found that no trees of 
*' a different kind will take on each 
" other. In several books of gar- 
" dening and husbandry, we find 
" directions how to ingraft one sort 
" of tree on another of any kind ; 
" which is to plant the stock near 
" the tree from which the cion is to 
" be taken, and when the stock is 
" sufficiently rooted, then you must 
*' draw down a young branch of the 
" tree, and insert it into the stock 
'' as near the ground as possible : 
'* then the earth is ordered to be 
" laid round the stock above the 
" place where it was grafted. In 
** this state they were to remain 
" until the second or third year, 
" when they should be cut off from 
•' the parent-tree. By this method 
*' I have known a pear-tree grafted 
*' on a cabbage stalk, but the stock 
*' was of no use to the graft : for 
" the cion put out roots whereby it 
'' maintained itself. But these being 
" little better than jugglers' tricks, 
** were never practised by persons 
" of experience." 

69. Ex.l In one of the Arunde- 
lian manuscripts it is et. 

Ibid. Nucis.'] See the note on ver. 
187- of the first Georgick. 

Ibid. Arbutus.'] See the note on 
ver. 148. of the first Georgick. 

Ibid. Horrida.] It is horrens in 
the King's, and both Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts. 

Ruaeus thinks that arbutus has 
the epithet horrida, on account of 
the fewness of the leaves : I rather 
believe it is because of the rugged- 
ness of its bark. Servius seems to 
take it in this sense : *' horrida 
*' autem hispida," says he. The 



126 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



bSXsf and thf^'moumyin Castancae fagos, ornusque incanuit albo 

ash has been hoary with the 
white 



branches also of the arbute]are very 
unequal, which the poet seems to 
express in the numbers of this verse. 
Mr. B — takes the arbutus to be our 
crab-tree : and nux to be the fil- 
berd : 

But Jilberds graft on th' horrid crab-trees 
brows. 

70. Sleriles platani malos gessere 
valentes.'] The Platanus is our ori- 
ental Plane-tree, without all ques- 
tion. Dionysius the geographer 
compares the form of the Morea, or 
ancient Peloponnesus, to the leaves 
of this tree, making the footstalk to 
be the isthmus, by which it is 
joined to Greece : 



'UiXeifiS y i^i vv^oi o^ri^iTy 



'Ei^ofiBvri vXaravoio fivou^tXovn ^irviXu. 
Tl^$ [iopinv, xttj xiivhv i(p' 'Fikkaoes "/^vog) 

K.o'Xtois uvakioig i^nfi/^iv)} iv^a xee.) ivSa. 

Pliny also says that the Pelopon^ 
nesus is shaped, by the number of 
its bays, like a plane leaf: " Platani 
** folio similis, propter angulosos re- 
'' cessus." To illustrate this simi- 
litude, which is as just as we can 
expect in any thing of this nature, 
I have added a figure of the Pelo- 
ponnesus, and of a leaf of a plane- 
tree. The Platanus is so called 
from xXeeTyj broad, on account of 
the remarkable breadth of its leaves. 
Pliny tells us this tree was first 
brought over the Ionian sea, into 
the island of Diomedes, for a mo- 
nument for that hero : thence into 
Sicily, and so into Italy. " Sed 
*' quis non jure miretur arborem 
" umbrae gratia tantum ex alieno 
" petitam orbe } Platanus haec est, 
" per mare Ionium in Diomedis in- 
" sulam ejusdem tumuli gratia pri- 
*' mum invecta; inde in Siciliara 



" transgressa, atque inter primas 
" donata Italiae." It seems the an- 
cients had so profuse a veneration 
for this tree as to irrigate it with 
wine; thus Pliny: *' Tantumque 
" postea honoris increvit, ut mero 
" infuso enutriantur : compertum 
*' id maxime prodesse radicibus, 
" docuimusque etiam arbores vina 
" potare." The poet calls the plane 
barren, because it bears no fruit that 
is eatable. 

71. Castanece fagos."] The com- 
mentators differ greatly about the 
reading of this passage. Servius 
reads castanece fagos, but thinking 
it absurd that a barren beech, as he 
calls it, should be ingrafted on a 
fruitful chesnut, he fancies either 
that it is a hypallage, so that CaS' 
tanecE fagos is for fagl castaneas: or 
else that we must make a stop at ^ 
castanece, taking it for the genitive ■ 
case after malos ; and making /agos '^ 
the nominative case with a Greek 
termination, this and the preceding ^ 
verse being to be read thus : a 

Et steriles platani malos gessere valentes 
Castaneffi : fagos, ornusque incanuit, S^c. 

The first of these interpretations is 
such, that, I believe, to mention it 
is to confute it. The second inter- 
pretation is not without its follow- 
ers. Pierius says he has seen cas- 
tanece marked for the genitive case, 
in some ancient copies : and As 
censius, as he is quoted by Ruaeus, 
contends for this reading. He 
takes malos to signif3^ not apple- 
trees, but masts : so that the sense 
w^U be, according to this critic. 
Plane-trees have borne such strong 
branches of chesnuts, that they seem 
to be masts of ships : but this, as 
Ruaeus justly observes, is too harsh. 
Others, says Servius, like neither 
of these interpretations, but make 



GEORCx. LIB. II. 



127 



Flore pyri, glandenique sues fregere sub Ulmis. sS'hav^ crunched 



ami the 
acorns 



castanea the genitive case after /Zore, 
and reaidi fagiis in the nominative 
case singular. Thus it will be, 
" the beech has been hoary with 
** the blossoms of chesnuts, and the 
*' mountain ash with those of the 
" pear-tree." Ruaeus follows this 
interpretation, and Mr. B 

Thus chesnut plumes nn beech surprise 

the sight. 
And hornbeam blows with pear-tree 

flowers all white. 

Griraoaldus reads caslaiiece fagos, 
and thinks the poet means a wild 
sort of chesnuts, for he paraphrases 
it " in castanea sylveUri fagum." 
La Cerda contends that it should be 
read caslaneas fagus, xwskmg fagiis 
the nominative case plural, like 
laurus, ptatanus, viyrtus, which are 
found in some old copies. Dryden 
seems to have read caslaneas fagus : 

Thus mastful beech the bristly chesnut 
bears. 

Dr. Trapp also highly approves of 
this reading: " I entirely agree," 
says he, '' with those who read cas^ 
" ianeas fagus, or castanoe fagus, 
" in Abramus's sense, [see Ruaeus;] 
" not castanecE fagos. Nobody in 
** his wits would graft a beech upon 
'•' a chesnut." His translation is 
according to this latter sense : 

Chesnuts bloom'd on beech. 

For my part I see no reason to re- 
ject the common reading, castanece 
fagos. Thus Pierius found it in 
the Medicean manuscript: and thus 
I find it in all the seven manu- 
scripts, which I have collated. The 
commentators have been induced 
to alter the text, on a supposition, 
that chesnuts were esteemed, in 
Virgil's time, as much superior to 
beech-mast, «s they are now : the 



contrary to which I believe may 
easily be proved. Pliny mentions 
chesnuts, as a very sorry sort of 
fruit, and seems to wonder that 
nature should take such care of 
them, as to defend them with a 
prickly husk : " Armatum iis echi- 
" nato calyce vallum, quod inchoa- 
" turn glandibus. Miruraque vi- 
" lissima esse quae tanta occultaverit 
" cura naturae." We learn from 
the same author that this fruit was 
made better by culture, about the 
time of Tiberius : " Divus Tiberius 
" postea balanum nomen imposuit, 
" excellentioribus satu factis." The 
mast of the beech was reckoned a 
very sweet nut, and men are said 
to have been sustained by it in a 
siege. " Dulcissima omnium fagi," 
says Pliny, ^' ut qua obsessos etiam 
" homines durasse in oppido Chio, 
" tradat Cornelius Alexander." This 
tree was held in great veneration 
by the Romans, vessels made of it 
were used in their sacrifices, and 
the mast was used by them in me- 
dicine. Hence I see no reason to 
doubt that Virgil meant the in- 
grafting a beech on a chesnut: 
though with us, who prefer the 
chesnut, this practice would be 
absurd. 

71. Ornusque mcanuit albo fiore 
P^ri.'] What the Romans called 
Ornus seems to be the Sorbus aucu- 
paria or Quicken-tree, which grows 
in mountainous places ; not only in 
Italy, but in many parts, especially 
the northern counties, of England, 
where it is commonly called the 
Mountain Ash. Columella says the 
Ornus is a wild sort of Ash, and 
that its leaves are broader than 
those of the other species : * ' Sed si 
" aspera et siticulosa loca arboribus 
" obserenda erunt, neque Opulus, 
" neque Ulmus tarn idoneae sunt 



128 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Nor are grafting and inoculat- 
ing performed the same wa}'. 
For where the bads thrust 
themselves forth, out of the 
middle of the bark, and break 
the thin membranes, a small 
slit is to be made in the very 
kuot; here they inclose a bud 
from a tree of another sort, 
and teach it to unite with the 
moist rind. Or again, the 
nnknotty stocks are cut, and 
a way is made into the solid 
wood wiih wedg«s, and then 
fruitful cions are put in : and 
in no long time the vast tree 
rises up to heaven with happy 
branches, and wonders at the 
new leaves, and fruits not its 
own. 



Nec modus inserere, atque oculos imponere sim- 
plex. 
Nam qua se medio trudunt de cortice gemmae, 
Et tenues rumpunt tunicas, angustus in ipso 75 
Fit nodo sinus : hue aliena ex arbore germen 
Includunt, udoque docent inolescere libro. 
Aut rursum enodes trunci resecantur, et alte 
Finditur in solidum cuneis via ; deinde feraces 
Plantae immittuntur : nec longum tempus, et 
ingens 80 

Exiit ad caelum ramis felicibus arbos, 
Miraturque novas frondes, et non sua poma. 



I 



*' quam OrnL Eae sylvestres Fra- 
" xini sunt, paulo latioribus tamen 
" foliis quam caeterae Fraxini, nec 
" deteriorem frondera quam Ulmi 
" praestant." 

I have sometimes suspected that 
the Ornus may be that sort of Ash, 
from which the manna is said to be 
gathered in Calabria, and which 
Caspar Bauhinus brought out of 
Italy, under the name of Ornus 3. 
Gain Brixiani de Re rustica. Both 
he and his brother John Bauhinus 
have called it Fraxinus rotundiore 
folio. 

72. Glandemque sues fregere sub 
Ulmis.'] In the King's, and one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts, I find 
glandes instead of glandem. 

Pliny has committed an error in 
quoting this passage, for he says 
that Virgil speaks of ingrafting 
cherries upon elms : '^ Quippe cum 
" Virgilius insitam nucibus arbutum, 
'^ malis platanum, cerasis ulmum 
'* dicat." 

73. Inserere atque oculos impo- 
nere.'] Here the poet shews the dif- 
ference between grafting and in- 
oculating. Inoculation, or budding, 
is performed by making a slit in 
the bark of one tree, and inserting 
the bud of another into it. There 



are several ways of grafting now in 
use, but the only one, which Virgil 
describes, is what we call cleft- 
grafting, which is performed by 
cleaving the head of the stock, and 
placing a cion from another tree in 
the cleft. 

78. Triincl'] We call the body 
of a tree the trunk: but iruncus is 
not used for the body, unless the 
head be cut off. The body of a 
tree, when it is adorned with its 
branches, is called caudex or codex. 

82. Miraturque.] Servius reads 
mirata estqite. 

To conclude the notes on this 
passage about ingrafting and inocu- 
lating : it seems impossible not to 
observe the beautiful manner in 
which our poet has described them. 
The variety of expression which he 
has used in speaking of the different 
sorts of ingrafted trees, and the 
various epithets he bestows on them, 
render this passage exceedingly de- 
lightful. The arbute is distin- 
guished by its ruggedness ; the 
plane by its barren shade ; and the 
pear by its snowy blossoms. It 
would have become a prose writer, 
simply to have said that any cion 
may be ingrafted on any stock : 
but a poet must add beautj' to his 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



Pr^terea genus baud unum, nee fortibus ulmis, ?„\^'St'o7'strr,ATn.s?'o'f 

. . . willows, of loies, and of 

Nec sahci, lotoque, neque Idaeis cyparissis : 84 idaean cypresses; 



instructions, and convey the plain- 
est precepts in the most agreeable 
manner. Thus Virgil, after he had 
said that walnuts are ingrafted on 
arbutes, apples on planes, and 
beeches on chesnuts, adorns the 
wild ash with the fine blossoms of 
the pear: and instead of barely 
telling us that oaks may be in- 
grafted on elms, he represents the 
swine crunching acoms under elms, 
than which nothing can be more 
poetical. At the close of this pas- 
sage, he gives life and sense to his 
ingrafted trees; making them won- 
der at the unknown leaves and 
fruits with which they are loaded. 

8S. Prceierea genus, c^c] In this 
passage the poet just mentions, that 
there are several species of trees, 
and speaks of the infinite variety of 
fruits. 

The two first lines of Dryden's 
translation are intolerable : 

Of vegetable woods are various kinds. 
And the same species are of sev'ral minds. 

Ulmis.'] Theophrastus speaks of 
two sorts of elm : Pliny mentions 
four. 

84. Salici.'] Pliny speaks of four 
sorts of willow. 

Loto.2 There is a tree, and also 
an herb, called Lotus by the an- 
cients. The herb is mentioned by 
Homer, as being fed upon by the 
horses of Achilles, 

It grows in great plenty in the Nile, 
where they make bread of the heads 
of it. Prosper Alpinus, an author 
of good credit, who travelled into 
Egypt, assures us, that the Egyp- 
tian Lotus does not at all differ from 
our great white water lily. But it 
is the tree which Virgil here speaks 



of: and which gave name to a peo- 
ple mentioned by Homer in his 
ninth Odyssey : 

O/ y aJ'4'^ el^oftivoi fziytv av^^aci fiuro^a- 

yoicrtv 
Oiy ci^a AuToipxyoi fz,v^ov3-' troi^oiiriv oXsS^av 
^Hfjt.iri^on f aXXd (r(pi ooo'ecv XutoIo ToiiraffS^at. 
Tav S' flV'5 "kurolo (pdiyoi f/,iXiyidia xcc^^oVf 
Ovx' IT a.fa.yyuXai ^dXiv rfS^sXsv, rM 

'AXX' abroZ (oovXovro [liT ccth^aai Auro- 
(^ccyotfft 

AuTOV lpi7r]of/,iVOl (/.IVlfJCiVf vo^ou Tl XaS'So'S-ai. 

They went, and found a hospitable race ; 
Not prone to ill, nor strange to foreign 

guest. 
They eat, they drink, and nature gives 

the feast ; 
The trees around them all their food 

produce. 
Lotos the name, divine nectareous juice ! 
(Thence call'd Lotophagi) which whoso 

tastes, 
Insatiate riots in the sweet repasts. 
Nor other home, nor other care intends. 
But quits his house, his country, and his 

friends. 

Mr. Pope. 

Theophrastus describes this tree to 
be something less than a pear-tree ; 
he says its leaves are cut about the 
edges, and like those of the Ilex or 
ever-green oak. He adds, that there 
are several sorts of them, differing 
according to their fruit, which is of 
the size of a bean, and grows thick 
upon the branches like myrtle ber- 
ries :"Ef/ dl rov A&fTov TO f^lv 'i^tov 
ygvof, iVfiiyiBig , y,X{Kov w^io^, tj f^tK^ov 
'{Xecrlov. ^vXXov ^g Ivro/^ug g^ov kcci 5rg<- 
vadig .... yivvt ^g ctVTov Tf'Xiia otcc^c^cii 
i^ovret Tc7g x.x^7ro7g. o dl KcngTeog ti^^lxog 

KVUfAOq .... (pvirXl ^g KOt^CC-TTl^ TU ^V^TX 

TTx^ciXXuXei, TTVKVog Itti rav /iXxfav. 
Pliny has translated Theophrastus 
almost word for word, with very 
little addition. He informs us how- 
ever that it was frequent in Italy, 
where it had degenerated : " Eadem 
s 



130 

nor do the fat olives, 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 

Nee pingues unam in faciem nascuntur olivaf, 



*' Africa qua vergit ad nos, insignem 
" arborem Loton gignit, quam vo- 
'' cant ce tin, et ipsam lialice fami- 
*' Harem, sed terra mutatam." It 
must indeed have very much dege- 
nerated, if it be, as most botanists 
agree, that which we call the nettle 
tree : the fruit of which is far from 
that delicacy, which is ascribed to 
the Lotus of the ancients. The 
leaves are indeed cut about the 
edges : but he must have a warm 
imagination, who can find in them 
any resemblance of the ilex. Hence 
some critics have taken the liberty 
to alter the text of Theophrastus, 
reading TF^imZhs instead of Tr^tvahi, 
that is, serrated, or indented like a 
saw, instead of like those of the ilex. 
But if we should allow this emen- 
dation, it would not answer our 
purpose : for, either hrefcx? 'i^ot cut 
about ike edges, and T^tmahs serrated, 
mean the very same thing, and so 
Theophrastus would be guilty of 
tautology; or else the first must be 
interpreted simiated, which is not 
true of the nettle-tree. Besides, in 
Pliny's time, it certainly was TrgivS^gj ^ 
for he translates this passage : 
'' Incisurae folio crebriores, alioquin 
" ilicis viderentur." 

It seems to me more probable 
that the Lotus of the Lotophagi is 
what we now call Zizyphus or the 
Jujube-tree. The leaves of this are 
about an inch and a half in length, 
and about one inch in breadth, of a 
shining green colour, and serrated 
about the edges : wherefore they 
are much more like the leaves of 
the ilex, than those of the nettle-tree 
can be imagined to be. The fruits 
grow thick upon the branches, ac- 
cording to what Theophrastus 
says of the Aajcg. They are of the 
shape and size of olives, and the 
pulp of them has a sweet taste, like 
honey, which agrees with what 



Homer says of this tree ; that it has 
^gA*»j5s<« xtfcg^rdv. They are sent over 
dried, from Italy. 

There is another sort of Lotus 
mentioned by Theophrastus, dif- 
ferent from that of the Lotophagi, 
which he calls also TrxT^t'ov^og. This 
is thought, not without reason, to 
be that which Prosper Alpinus tells 
us the Egyptians call Nabca. It is 
described and figured by that learned 
author, in his book de Plantis 
JEgyptif page 7, S. This is thought 
also to be the lotus described by 
Polybius, as we find him quoted by 
Athenaeus. Virgil has mentioned 
the Paliurus, in his fifth Eclogue : 

/ Spinis surgit Paliurus acutis. 

Idceis cyparissis.'] He calls the cy- 
press Idcean, from Ida, a mountain 
of Crete. Theophrastus tells us this 
tree is so familiar to that island, that 
it comes up there spontaneously, if 
you do but turn up the earth : '£><«- 

tv^vq xvxZxxi'ecvtiv rx tiKUX ths ^ei^xg. 

85. Nec pingues unam in faciem 
nascu7itur olivce.'] There are many 
sorts, or varieties, of olives ; though i 
they are not so numerous as apples, 
pears, and plums. Cato mentions 
eight sorts ; oleam conditivam, ra- 
dium majorem, sallentinam, orchitem, 
poseam, sergianam, colminianam, aU 
bicerem. Columella says, that ten 
sorts only had come to his know- i 
ledge : though he thinks there are i 
more. The names of the ten men- 
tioned by Columella are; Pausia, | 
atgiana, liciniana, sergia, nevia, cul- 
minia, orchis, regia, cercites, murtea. i 
He mentions the radius also soon i 
after : but that may probably be only 
another name for one of the ten. 
There are many more sorts men- 
tioned by Pliny, and other authors ; 
the same fruit obtaining, as I sup- 



GEORG. IJB. II 



131 



Orchites, et radii, et amara pausia bacca : 86 



the orcliltes, and <he radii, 
and the pausia with bitter ber- 
ries, grow in tite same form : 



pose, diiFerent names, in different 
provinces, and at different times. 
Thus we find in Pliny, that the ser- 
gia was called regia by the Sabines : 
and yet Columella sets these down 
as two different sorts. Matthiolus 
informs us, that there were no more 
than three sorts known in his time 
in Tuscany : " Virgilius trium tan- 
" turn generum meminerit, quem- 
'^ adraodum etiam plura non no- 
" vit hac nostra aetate Hetruria, 
" praesertiraque noster Senensis 
" ager." 

86. Orchites.'] Most of the manu- 
scripts I have seen have orchades. 
The same reading is in the Medi- 
cean, and other ancient manuscripts. 
Heinsius also. La Cerda, Ruaeus, 
and most of the editors read orcha- 
des. One of Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts has orchades, radiique, mak- 
ing the middle syllable of orchades 
long. Servius reads orchites, which 
I take to be right, because I find it 
spelt in that manner by the prose 
writers of agriculture; and par- 
ticularly by Pliny, when he quotes 
this very passage of Virgil: " Ge- 
" nera earum tria dixit Virgilius, 
" orchites, et radios, et pausias." 
The orchis is a round olive, being 
so called from o^x^g, a testicle. Co- 
lumella says that it is fitter for 
eating, than to make oil : " Orchis 
" quoque et radius melius ad escam, 
" quam in liquorem stringitur." 
Pliny says the orchis abounds most 
in oil: " Prima ergo ab autumno 
*' colligitur, vitio operae non na- 
" turse, pausia cui plurimum carnis : 
" mox orchites, cui olei:' It seems 
to be the same with that which Cae- 
salpinus, who was of Arezzo in Tus- 
cany, tells us the modern Italians 
call Olivola, being a small round 
olive, yielding abundance of oil. 
" Nostratium, quae minores, rotun- 



" dloresque, plurimum olei haben- 
" tes, olivolce vocantur." Matthio- 
lus says that the olive, which pro- 
duces the best oil, and in greatest 
quantities, is called olivasire : that 
it is a large spreading tree, as big 
as a walnut-tree J *' Proximae, turn 
" colore, turn magnitudine prae- 
" stantes, quamvis praedictis longe 
" minores sint, sunt tamen omnium 
" aptissimae ad olei conficiendi 
" usum : quippe quod oleum ex eis 
'' expressum sit non modo flavum, 
" dulce, pellucidum, ac caeteris 
" praestans, sed etiam copiosum. 
*' Gignuntur haec a procerissimis 
'* oleis, praegrandibus, juglandium 
'^ nucum instar, ramos in altum la- 
** tumque amplissime fundentibus, 
" eas rura nostra olivastre vulgo 
" vocant." Hence I take the orchis 
of Virgil, the olivola of Caesalpinus, 
and the olivastre of Matthiolus to 
be the same sort of olive. 

Radii.] The radius is a long olive, 
so called from its similitude to a 
weaver's shuttle. There was a 
larger and a smaller sort of radius : 
for Cato, in the passage quoted in 
the note on ver. 85. mentions the 
radius major; and Columella in 
lib. xii. cap. 47. speaks of the ra- 
diolus. Caesalpinus mentions only 
the large sort, which, he says, are 
large and long, yielding a very 
sweet oil, but in small quantities, 
and are called raggiaricefrom radius: 
*' Quae majusculae et oblongae, dul- 
'' cissimura oleum reddentes, sed 
" parcius, raggiaricB a radiis nomine 
*' deflexo." These seem to be the 
same with the first sort mentioned 
by Matthiolus, which he says are 
large olives, produced from small 
trees, and are generally pickled, 
because they yield but a little oil : 
** Primum harum genus eas nostri 
" faciunt, quae licet a minoribus 
s 2 



132 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



neither do apples, and the 
\roods of Alcinous: nor are 
the shoots the same of the 
Crustutnian and Syrian pears, 
and of the heavy volemi. Nor 
does the same vintage hang 
on our trees, as Lesbos gathers 
from the Methymnjean vine, 
■j'hcre are Thasian vines, and 
there are white Mareotidcs : 



Pomaque, et Alcinoi sylvae : nee surculus idem 
Crustumiis, Syriisque pyris, gravlbusque volemis. 
Non eadem arboribus pendet vindemia nostris, 
Quam Methymnaeo carpit de palmite Lesbos. 
Sunt Thasiae vites, sunt et Mareotides albae : 91 



'' olearum plantis proferantur, sunt 
" tamen spectata forma et magnitu- 
" dine, Bononiensibiis non quidem 
" inferiores : his tantum muria as- 
*' servatis utuntur in cibis : quando- 
" quidem oleae minus aptae sunt, 
" quod multo plus amurcae quam 
" olei fundant." 

Amara pausia bacca.'] The poet 
mentions the bitter berry of this sort 
of olive, because it is to be gathered 
before it is quite ripe ; for then it 
has a bitter or austere taste. But 
when it is quite ripe, it has a very 
pleasant flavour, according to Co- 
lumella : '' Bacca jucundissima est 
" pausiae." Cato, when he is speak- 
ing of making green oil, says you 
must choose the roughest olive : 
" Quam acerbissima olea oleum 
'* facies, tum oleum optimum erit." 
Pliny has almost the same words : 
" Oleum quam acerbissima oliva 
*' optimum fieri." And Columella 
calls the Pausian olive acerba : 
" Acerbam pauseam mense Sep- 
" tembri vel Octobri, dum adhuc 
" vindemia est, contunde." 

87. Poma.'] Columella mentions- 
nine sorts of apples, as the most ex- 
cellent: " Praeterea malorum ge- 
" nera exquirenda maxime scan- 
" diana, matiana, orbiculata, sex- 
" tiana, pelusiana, amerina, syrica, 
" malimela, cydonia." Pliny men- 
tions twenty-nine sorts: but in these 
are included citrons and several 
other fruits which we do not now 
call apples. 

Alcinoi sylvce.'] The gardens of 
Alcinous, in which were groves of 
fruit trees, are celebrated in the se- 
venth Odyssey. 



88. Crustumiis, Syriisque pyris, 
gravibusque volemis.'] The Crustu- 
mia, or, as others call them, crus- 
tumina, were reckoned the best sort 
of pears. Columella gives them the 
first place in his catalogue; and 
Pliny says they are the best fla- 
voured. " Cunctis autem crustu- 
" mina gratissima." Whether they 
are aiiy sort of pears now known is 

uncertain : Mr. B- translates 

them warden pears. 

The Syrian pears are called also 
Tarenlina, according to Columella. 
They are thought by some to be the 
bergamot. 

The volemi are so called, quia vo- 
1am maiius impleant ; because they 
fill the palm of the hand. Ruaeus 
thinks they are the bon chretien, and 
that those are mistaken, who con- 
found them with the libralia of Pli- 
ny, which are the pound pears. Dry- 
den however differs from Ruaeus : 

Unlike are bergamots and pounder 
pears. 

And Mr. B 

The same variety the orchard bears, 
In warden, bergamot, and pounder 
pears. 

90. Methymnceo.] Methymna is 
a city of Lesbos, an island of the 
Mgean sea, famous for good wine- 

91. ThasicB vites.'] Thasus is an- 
other island of the same sea. The 
Thasian wine is mentioned by Pliny, 
as being in high esteem ; " In 
" summa gloria post Homerica ilia, 
'' de quibus supra diximus, fuere 
" Thasium, Chiumque." 

Mareotides albce.] It is disputed 
whether these vines are so called 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



133 



Pinguibus hae terris habiles, levioribus illae : 
Et passo psythia utilior, tenuisque lageos, 



the one thrives iu a fat soil, 
and the other in a light one: 
and the Psythian. which is 
fitter to be used dry, and the 
light lageus, 



from Mareia, or Mareotis, a lake 
near Alexandria; from Mareotis, a 
part of Africa, called also Marraa- 
rica, and now Barca ; or from Ma- 
reotis, a part of Epirus. Columella 
seems to be of the latter opinion, 
for he calls them Greek vines : 
" Nam quae Graeculae vites sunt, ut 
" Mareoticae, Thasiae, Psythiae, c^c.'' 
Athenaeus is of the former opinion, 
and says the best Mareotic or Alex- 
andrian wine is white. But Pliny 
expressly says the Alexandrian grape 
is black. " Alexandrina appellatur 
" vitis circa Phalacram brevis, ra- 
" mis cubitalibus, acino nigro!' 
Horace seems to countenance the 
opinion that the Mareotic was an 
Egyptian wine ;^ for he represents 
Cleopatra as inebriated with it : 

Mentemque lymphatam Marcotico 
Redegit in veros timores 
Caesar. 

Strabo is quoted, as ascribing the 
Mareotic wine to Marmarica : but I 
think unjustly. The place referred 
to is in the seventeenth book: which 
if the reader will carefully consult, 
he will find, I think, that this part 
of Africa did not bear good wine : 
MgT«|v ^g TT^arcv /tc8v a«gtf6 Agw»oyg;«?, 
Mvicvi UKT*! xxXivfizvyj. 'i-Kiira, (poiviscovg 
XtfAiiv, Kcci 'TViyivg KCOf^n. i'net v^a-og wjj- 
doti'ec XifAiva, 'i^ovcrx. ilr clvTl<p^xt, f4.iK.gov 
ecvur'i^a rvi<; ^ocXdrr'Ag . oLtccco-cc (.civ ys yfioqtx. 
etvTfi ovK ivotvo?, TFhiia dzy^ofchov rou 
Ki^Uf4.ov ^ciXecrrctv, « olvov, ov ^h fcxXovTt 
AiZvKov. « ^i] xeci rZ ^v^aro ttcXv ^vXov 
Xi^roit rm 'AAg|«y^gs&'». Here we see 
that the Lybian wine was in no 
esteem, and that it served only for 
the use of the common people of 
Alexandria. But he plainly enough 
ascribes the Mareotic wine to the 
country about the lake Mareia: 



Kxi oiv^o, TrXureg fx,lv t^n 'TrXitovav , ^ 
'TTiVTKKovrx Kxt Ikxtov ^XOIUV, fAyiKOg 5' 
hXxTTovav >J r^ixKortav. "'Exit oi oktoi 
tvia-ovg, Kxi rx KVxXa -ttxvtx ciKovfCivx 
KxXag. Evoiv'tx ri Wt 7rsg< Tovg toTFOvg, 
a<s^i xxt ^tx(f>6i(rB'Xi -x^og TTxXxioJFiv rh 
Mx^xiariv olvov. The same author 
tells us expressly, in another place 
of the same book, that this lake 
Mareia, or Mareotis, is on the south 
side of Alexandria: 'Af.c(pUxv^ov re 
yx^ W) ro ^agiov ^o<rt viXciyari, ro fiiv 
x%o •rav ei^Krar ra Alyvrria Xiycfzivat, 
ro di XTTO fciTHf^/i^lxg rS rtig Xtfcvng rtis 
Mx^eixg, ^ kx} Mx^iarig xiysTxi. Stra- 
bo indeed makes Egypt to extend 
as far as to Catabathmus, which 
must comprehend the whole Mare- 
otis Lybia, which, according to 
Pliny, extends from Catabathmus 
to Alexandria. Now, as the lake 
Mareotis is on the borders of Egypt 
and Lybia, the Mareotic vines may 
be supposed to have grown in either 
of these countries. But as Strabo 
plainly distinguishes between the 
Lybian and Mareotic vines, I believe 
we may venture to conclude, that 
they grew on the Egyptian side of 
the lake Mareotis : that there were 
both black and white grapes in that 
country : and therefore that the poet 
added the epithet lu^i^e, because they 
were better than the black sort. 

9S. Passo psythia utilior.'] Passuni 
is a wine made from raisins, or dried 
grapes. Columella has described 
the manner of making it, in lib. xii. 
cap. 39. It is called passicm from 
patior according to Pliny : '* Quin 
" et a patientia nomen acinis datur 
" passis." 

Tenuis lageos.'] The lageos is so 
called from Xxyag a hare, on account 
of its colour. This was not an Ita- 
lian, but a foreign wine, as we are 
informed by Pliny : " Dixit Virgi- 



134 



P. VIRGILII MAROxNIS 



which will make your legs 
fail j^on, and tie your tongue: 
there are purple and early 
ripe grapes: and bow shall I 
praise thee, O Rbaetian grape? 



Tentatura pedes olim, vincturaque linguam ; 94 
Purpureas, preciaeque, et quo te carmine dicam 



" lius Thasias et Mareotidas, et Ja- 
*' geas, compluresque externas, quae 
*' non reperiuntur in Italia." Ser- 
vius interprets tenuis , penetrabilis, 
quce cito descendit ad venas. Some 
think that tenuis signifies weak, and 
therefore that the poet uses olim, to 
signify that it will be long before it 
affects the head. I take tenuis in 
this place to signify what we call a 
light wine. Dioscorides opposes the 
light wines to the thick black wines: 
Oi Jg TTX^tTi Kxi ftiXecveg KeucoTOfcxx,ct, 
(Pva-a-a^lig , c-ec^xog ftlvTOt ytvvviTiKOi. ct 
ftivroi Ag9no/ »eci xv^-yi^oi tvTOfAx^oi. 

95. PrecicE,] " Preciae, quasi pras- 
" coquae/' says Servius, " quod ante 
'' alias coquantur»" 

Quo te carmine dicam, Rhcetica ?] 
Rhaetia is a country bordering upon 
Italy. It has been questioned whe- 
ther this expression of Virgil is in- 
tended to praise the Rhaetian wines 
or not. Seneca in his first book of 
natural questions, cap. II. speaking 
of the parhelia, is in doubt what 
Latin name to give them, and asks 
whether he shall imitate Virgil's ex- 
pression, where he is in doubt how 
to call the Rhaetian vine ; "His 
" quod noraen imponimus? An fa- 
" cio quod Virgilius, qui dubitavit 
" de nomine, deinde id de quo du- 
" bitaverat, posuit } 



Et quo te nomine dicam 



*' Rhaetica ? nee cellis ideo contende Fa- 
*' lernis." 

Here Seneca certainly understood 
Virgil's meaning to be, that he was 
in doubt what to say of this sort of 
vine. But I think his authority in 
this place not very great, because he 
seems not to have read our poet 
very carefully. Virgil did not say 
nomine, but carmine: he was in no 
doubt about the name of the vine. 



but how he should celebrate it. 
Servius tells us that Cato commended 
this grape, and that Catullus spoke 
in contempt of it : and that Virgil 
therefore judiciously kept a middle 
way, and made a doubt whether he 
should praise or dispraise it. Ful- 
vius Ursinus thinks this interpre- 
tation very insipid. Let us see now 
what reason there is to think that 
Virgil intended absolutely to praise 
the Rhaetian vine. I shall first quote 
the authority of Strabo, who tells us 
that the Rhaetian wine was highly 
esteemed : O/ (aIi ovv 'VaiTai fiz^^i t?5 
'ireiXixg )cx6»x.ov!n, rij? y;r£g OvK^avof 
KXi Kafiov, xeci oy6 'VuiTiKog oivog tat if 
ro7g 'irxXiKoTg iTrxnovftivuf oi»c uxcXii- 
iFiT^xi ^cKcii, h rxii nvrui vfrv^uxig 
ylnrxt. The next author I shall 
quote is Pliny, who understood 
our poet to mean, that the Rhaetian 
vine was second to none but the 
Falernian : " In Veronensi item 
" Rhaetica, Falemis tantum postha- 
" bita a Virgilio." He speaks of it 
in another place, as a grape in high 
esteem : " Et Rhaetica in maritimis 
" Alpibus appellata, dissimilis lau- 
" datoe illi." We learn from the 
same author, that Tiberius intro- 
duced another sort of wine, but that 
till then the Rhaetian was most 
esteemed : * ' Aliis gratiara qui et 
'' vinis fumus affert fabrilis, iisque 
" gloriam praecipuam in fomacibus 
" Africae Tiberii Caesaris autoritas 
" fecit. Ante eum Rhaeticis prior 
" mensa erat, et uvis Veronensium 
" agro." But what has the most 
weight with me in this argument 
is, that Suetonius has informed us, 
that this wine was the favourite of 
Augustus Caesar: '' Maxima delec- 
" tatus est Rhsetico." Surely Vir- 
gil was not so ill a courtier, as to 
make a doubt whether he should 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



135 



Rhaetica ? nee cellis ideo contende Falernis. 96 
Sunt etiam Ammineae vites, firmissima vina, 
Tmoliiis adsurgit quibus, et rex ipse Phanaeus, 
Argitisque minor: cui non certaverit ulla, 
Aut tantum fluere, aut totidem durare per annos. 
Non ego te, Dis, et mensis accepta secundis, 101 



but however tbou must not 
contend with the Falernian 
cellars. There are also Am- 
minean vines, which yield 
the best bodied wine: which 
the Tmolian, and even the 
Phanaean king reverences: 
and ihe smaller Argiiis, which 
none can rival, either in yield- 
ing; so much juice, or in last- 
ing so many years. Nor shall 
I pass thee over, O Rhodian 
grape, which art so grateful 
to (he gods, and to second 
courses ; 



praise or dispraise that wine which 
his Emperor applauded : though he 
confesses at the same time that he 
must be so sincere as to prefer the 
Falernian wine before it. 

96. Nee cellis ideo contende Faler- 
nis,] Pierius found adeo instead of 
ideo, in some ancient manuscripts, 
which he thinks more elegant. 

Falernus is the name of a moun- 
tain of Campania, famous for the 
best wine. 

97^ Sunt etiam Amminea vites, fir- 
missima vina.'] One of the Arunde- 
lian manuscripts has sunt et Ammi- 
nece: the other has su7it etAminece. This 
last reading is in one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts, and is admitted by 
Servius, Paul Stephens, La Cerda, 
and several other editors. The 
Cambridge, and the other manu- 
script of Dr. Mead, has stmt et Ani- 
meCj which is an easy mistake of the 
transcribers for Aminecd. The old 
Nurenberg edition has suntque Ami- 
necE. Pierius says the Medicean and 
Vatican manuscripts ha,ve sunt etiam 
Ammintce: it is the same in the 
King's and the Bodleian manu- 
scripts. This reading is approved 
by Heinsius, Ruaeus, Masvicius, and 
most of the modern editors. Ami- 
neum vinum, says Servius, quasi sine 
minio, id est, rubor e, nam album est. 
But this seems to be an imagination 
of his own, not founded on any good 
authority. 

98. Tmolius adsurgit quibus, et 
rex ipse Phanceus.'] Most of the 
editors read Tmolus et adsurgit. 
Some have Tmolus adsurgit, but 
this is objected to by the gramma- 



rians, because there is no instance 
of a hexameter verse beginning 
with a trochee. To avoid this im- 
propriety, perhaps they stuck in et, 
for which there is no occasion, if 
we read Tmolius, according to the 
Medicean, the Vatican, and the 
King's manuscripts. This reading is 
approved by Pierius, Heinsius, and 
Masvicius. I find it also in several 
of the oldest printed editions. In 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts it is 
moUius assurgit. I have spoken of 
Tmolus in the note on ver. 56. of the 
first book. This mountain was 
very famous for wine : thus Ovid : 

Africa quot segetes, quot TmoUa terra 
racemos. 

Phanae or Phanaea is the name of a 
mountain of Chios, now called Scio. 
The Chian wines are abundantly ce- 
lebrated by the Greek and Roman 
writers. 

99- Argitis.'] This is thought to 
be so called from Argos, a city, and 
kingdom in the Morea, or ancient 
Peloponnesus. Some think it is 
derived from a^yhq, white, in which 
sense May has translated it : 

And white grapes, less than those, 

101. Bis et mensis^ So I find it 
in the King's, the Cambridge, the 
Bodleian, and one of the Arunde- 
lian manuscripts. In the other 
Arundelian it is Dis aut mensis. In 
both Dr. Mead's manuscripts, it is 
mensis et Dis; which order of the 
words is preferred by Pierius, 
wherein he is followed by most of 
the editors. He acknowledges how- 



136 



r. VIRGILII MARONIS 



nor thee, O Bumastus, with 
swelling clusters. But the 
many species, and the names 
of them are without number: 
nor is there occasion to relate 
their number: which, he that 
would count, might as well 
number the sands of the Ly- 
bian sea, that are tossed with 
the west wind, or the Ionian 
waves, that dash against the 
shore, when a strong e^st- 
wind falls upon the ships. 
But neither can every sort of 
land bear all sorts of trees. 
Willows grow about rivers, 
and alders in muddy marshes: 



Transierim, Rhodia, et tumidis, bumaste, race- 
mis. 
Sed neque quam multae species, nee nomina quae 

sint. 
Est Humerus : neque enim numero comprendere 

refert : 
Quem qui scire veKt, Lybici velit aequoris idem 
Discere quam multae Zephyro turbentur arenae : 
Aut ubi navigiis violentior incidit eurus, 
Nosse, quot lonii veniant ad litora fluctus. 
Nee vero terrae ferre omnes omnia possunt. 
Fluminibus salices, crassisque paludibus alni 110 



ever that Dis et mensis is in most of 
the ancient manuscripts he has seen : 
and this reading is approved by 
Heinsius, and Masvicius. 

The first course was of flesh ; and 
the second, or dessert, of fruit : at 
which they poured Out wine to the 
gods, which was called libation. 
Therefore when the poet says the 
Rhodian wine is grateful to the gods 
and to second courses, he means it 
was used in libations, which were 
made at these second courses; or 
perhaps, that the wine was poured 
forth, and the grapes served up, as 
part of the dessert. 

102. Tumidis bumaste racemis.'] 
One of Dr. Mead's manuscripts has 
gravidis, instead of tumidis. The 
bumasti are so called, because they 
are large clusters, swelling like great 
udders: thus Pliny: " Tumunt 
*' vero mammarum mode bumasti." 

103. Sed neque quam multce spe- 
cies, nee nomina quce sint, est nume- 
rus.'] Pliny tells us that Deraocritus 
alone thought, that the different 
sorts of vines were to be numbered, 
but that others thought they were 
infinite : " Genera vitium numero 
" comprehendi posse unus existi- 
' ' mavit Democritus, cuncta sibi 
*' Graeciae cognita professus. Cae- 



'^ teri innumera atque infinita esse 
" prodiderunt, quod verius appa- 
•' rebit ex vinis." 

105. Velit.'\ It is volet in one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 

Lybici velit cequoris idem, c^c] 
This seems to be an imitation of 
Theocritus, in his sixteenth Idyl- 
lium. 

'AXX' Zffos ya.^ o fte^S'est W am xv/nara 
"Off' einfi.es ;^i^ffevSt fitret, yXoLVxeis eiT^i 

109- Nec vero terrce, S^xJ] The 
poet now informs us, that different 
plants require different soils; he 
mentions several considerable trees, 
by which the countries that pro- 
duce them may be distinguished; 
and concludes with a beautiful de- 
scription of the citron -tree. 

Half this verse is taken from Lu- 
cretius, lib. i. ver. I67. 



Ferre omnes omnia possent. 

110. Fluminibus salices.'] The 
author of the books of plants, 
ascribed to Aristotle, says, that wil- 
lows grow either in dry or wet 
places: Tivu fih ^Za-tv h toxois vy^oTg, 
rirei 21 ^ri^olg, rtvct iv MMtT£g«<5, ug »i Wicc, 
It would be wasting time, to pro- 



GEORG. LIB. 11. 



137 



Nascuntur : steriles saxosis montibus orni : 
Littora myrtetis laetissima : denique apertos 
Bacchus amat colles, aquilonem et frigora taxi. 
Aspice et extremis domitum cultoribus orbem, 
Eoasquedomos Arabum, pictosque Gelonos. 115 



the barren wild ashes on rockj' 
inoiintairis: ihe sph shores a- 
boiind with myrtles: lastly 
the virK* loves open hills, Hnil 
yews the northern cold. Be- 
hold also the most distant 
parts of the cultivated gh^be, 
both the eastern habitations 
of the Arabians, and the 
painted Geloni. 



duce innumerable quotations from 
other authors, to shew that wet 
grounds are the proper soil for wil- 
lows ; since it is confirmed by daily 
experience. 

Crassis paludibus.'] Servius inter- 
prets crassis, lutosis, naturaliter : 
Grimoaldus's paraphrase is, ''Alni 
*' gaudent paludibus, et Into repletis 
" locis." Mr. Evelyn says, '' The 
" Alder is of all the other the most 
" faithful lover of watery and boggy 
" places, and those most despised 
*^ weeping parts, or water-galls of 
" forests ; for in better and dryer 
" ground they attract the moisture 
'' from it, and injure it." 

111. Orni.l See the note on ver. 

71. 

114. Exlremis domitum cuUoribus 
orbem.'] Servius thinks the prepo- 
sition cum is to be understood here, 
and that these words are to be ren- 
dered ' ' the farthest part of the earth 
" subdued together with its hus- 
" bandraen." He supposes the poet 
designs a compliment to the Romans, 
who had subdued those nations. 
Grimoaldus, La Cerda, and most of 
the commentators follow this inter- 
pretation. Ruaeus gives the sense 
which I have followed in my trans- 
lation.- May follows Servius: 

— — And again behold 

The conquer*d world's farthest inhabit- 
ants : 

and Dr. Trapp : 

See the most distant regions, by the 

pow*r 
Of Roman arms subdu'd. 

*' I have rendered it," says he, "ac- 



"^ cording to the sense of all the 
" commentators, except Ruaeus. — 
" Orbem domitum [a Romanis, una 
'' cum] exlremis [suis] cultoribus. 
" Though I confess it is strained, 
'* and harsh ; and Ruaeus's is more 
'^ natural. — Orbem domitum; for 
'^ subactum ; i, e. cultiim [ab] extre^ 
'' mis, Sfc." Dryden follows Ruaeus : 

Regard th' extremest cultivated coast. 
and Mr. B : 



Where'er the globe subdu'd by Jdnds we 
see, 

115. Piclos Gelonosr\ The Geloni 
were a people of Scythia, who 
painted their faces, like several other 
barbarous nations, to make them- 
selves appear more terrible in battle. 
Some have erroneously, contrary to 
all geographers, placed the Geloni 
in Thrace : and Ruaeus thinks that 
Virgil himself seems to make them 
Thracians, in the third Georgick, 
where he says, 

— — Acerque Gelonus, 

Cum fugit in Rhodopen, atqiie in deserta 
Getarum : 

because Rhodope is a mountain of 
Thrace, and the Getae border upon 
Scythia and Thrace. I believe the 
poet uses Rhodope for Thrace ; and 
the desarts of the Getae are confess- 
edly not in Thrace, the Danube 
flowing between them. Hence it is 
as reasonable to say that the poet 
makes the Geloni to be Getai as 
Thracians, nay that he makes them 
both Getae and Thracians, which is 
absurd. It seems more probable 
that when he speaks of their flying 



138 



r. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Yoa will find that countries Divisae avboribus patriae : sola India nigrum 

are divided by their trees: » *=* 

India alone bears the black Yevt ebenum 



soils est thurea virga Sabaeis. 



ebony: the Sabeeans only en 

joy the bough of frankincense. „.,.,., „ , • -,• -i-in 

•Why shoniii I mention the (juid tiDi oQorato reieraui sudantia liffno 118 

balsam, which sweats out of ^ o 

b«rieT^"f the°''ever-green Balsamaq ue, etbaccas semper frondentis acanthi ? 

acanthus I 



into Thrace, and the desarts of the 
Getae, he should mean flying out of 
their own country ; whence it will 
follow that they were neither Getae 
nor Thracians, but Scythians. 

U6. Divis6e.'\ In the King's and 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts it is 
diverse. 

Sola India nigrum fert ehenum.'] 
Our poet has been accused of a mis- 
take in saying that only India pro- 
duces Ebony, since we are informed 
by good authors, not only that it is 
brought from Ethiopia, but also that 
the best grows in that country. 
Herodotus says expressly that 
Ebony grows in Ethiopia, and we 
find him quoted to this purpose by 
Pliny : " Unara e peculiaribus In- 
" diae VirgiUus celebravit Ebenum, 
" nusquam alibi nasci professus. 
" Herodotus eam ^Ethiopiae intelligi 
" raaluit, tributi vice regibus Per- 
" sidis e materie ejus centenas pha- 
" langas tertio quoque anno pensi- 
." tasse ^thiopas cum auro et ebore, 
" prodendo." Dioscorides mentions 
an Indian Ebony, but he says the 
best comes from Ethiopia: ''ESevo? 
K^urUn « Al^iOTTiK^. — — Vf< ^e rk y-eti 
'ly^iK-Ji. Lucan is quoted for saying 
it is an Egyptian plant : 

Ebenus Mareotica vastos 



Non operit posies, sed stat pro robore 

vili 
Auxilium. 

But it has, not without reason, been 
supposed, that we ought to read 
Mero'itica instead of Mareotica, 
which will make the Ebony not an 
Egyptian, but an Ethiopian plant, 
even according to Lucan^ for Meroe 
is in Ethiopia. This emendation is 



confirmed by another passage in 
the same author; where he ex- 
pressly says that the Ebony grows 
in Meroe ; 



Late tibi gurgite rupto 



Ambitur nigris Meroe fcEcunda colonis, 
Laeta corais Ebeni : quae, quamvis ar- 

bore multa 
Frondeat, asstatem nulla sibi mitigat 

umbra. 

Thus we find a concurrent testimony 
of several authors, that the Ebony 
grows in Ethiopia, whereas Virgil 
asserts, that it grows only in India. 
Servius vindicates the poet by say- 
ing, that Ethiopia was reckoned a 
part of India ; which opinion seems 
to be confirmed by a passage in the 
fourth Georgick, where the source 
of the Nile i« said to be India; 
which must be understood to mean 
Ethiopia, for it is impossible to sup- 
pose the Nile to rise in India pro- 
perly so called : 

Et diversa mens septem discurrit in ora 
Usque coloralis amnis devexus. ab Indis. 

However it is not improbable, that 
the poet might think that Ebony 
was peculiar to India, for we find 
that Theophrastus was of the same 
opinion. This great author, speak- 
ing of the trees of India, says that 
Ebony is peculiar to that country : 

1 1 7- Solis est thurea virga Sabceis.] 
See the note on ijioUes sua thura Sa- 
bcei, book i. ver. 57. 

119. Balsamaqiie.'] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is Bahama, 
quid. If this reading, which seems 
very good, be admitted, the whole 
passage will stand thus : 

Quid tibi odorato referam sudantia Hgno 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



139 



Quid iiemora iEthiopum moUi canentia lana? 



Why should I speak of tlie 
forests of the Ethiopians, 
hoary with soft wool ! 



Balsama? quid baccas semper frondentis 

acanthi ? 
Quid nemora iEthiopum molli canentia 

lana? 

In the Cambridge manuscript, it is 
Balsama, et baccas. 

According to Pliny the Balsam 
plant grows only in Judaea : but Jo- 
sephus tells us, that the Jews had a 
tradition, that it was first brought 
into their country by the Queen of 
Sheba, who presented it to Solomon: 

Aiyeyc* 5' on kx) t^v rov 07roQxX(rxuiv 
fiC^xvvjV iTi vvv KfACi)y t} ^copoc, (pzgii, doVFlif 

rctvTiig TJij yvveiiKog s^ofiiv. According 
to the best accounts of modern au- 
thors the true country of the Balsam 
plant is Arabia Felix. It is a shrub 
with unequally pennated leaves. The 
Balsam flows out of the branches, 
either naturally, or by making 
incisions in June, July, and August. 
It is said to be white at first, then 
green, and at last of a yellow colour, 
like that of honey. 

Baccas semper frondentis Acanthi.] 
The Acanthus is mentioned several 
times by Virgil. In this place he 
speaks of it as a tree, that bears ber- 
ries, and is always green. In the 
fourth Georgick, he seems to speak 
of it as a twining plant : 

•■ Flcxi tacuissein vimeu Acanthi. 

A little afterwards he mentions it as 
a garden plant : 

Ille comam mollis jam turn tondebat 
Acanthi. 

In the third Eclogue he describes 
two cups adorned with the figure 
of it: 

Et nobis idem Alcimedon duo pocula 

fecit ; 
Et moUi circum est ansas amplexus 

Acantho. 

This verse is taken from the first 
Idyllium of Theocritus : 



In the fourth Eclogue it is repre- 
sented as a beautiful plant : 

Mixtaque ridenti Colocasia fundet Acan- 
tho. 

In the first ^Eneid he speaks of a 
garment wrought with yellow silk, 
in the form of Acanthus leaves : 

Et circumtextum croceo velamen Acan- 
tho. 

And 

Pictum croceo velamen Acantho. 

It seems scarce possible to find any 
one plant, with which all these cha- 
racters agree. Hence it has not 
been unreasonably supposed, that 
there are two sorts of Acanthus; 
the one an Egyptian tree, of which 
the poet speaks in this place ; and 
the other an herb, to which the 
other passages allude. The tree is 
described by Theophrastus. He 
says it is called Acnnthus, because 
it is all over prickly, except the 
trunk : for it has thorns upon the 
shoots and leaves. It is a large 
tree, and affords timber of twelve 

cubits. The fruit grows in pods, 

after the manner of pulse, and is 
used by the inhabitants, instead of 
galls, in dressing leather. The 
flower is beautiful, and is used in 
garlands : it is also gathered by the 
physicians, being useful in medi- 
cine. A gum also flows from it, 
either spontaneously, or by incision. 
It shoots again the third year after 
it has been cut down. This tree 
grows in great plenty, and there is 
a large wood of them about The- 
bais: 'H ^g "Ax«fv9-e? xccMTtui f^lv diei 
TO axccvB-a^ig oXov ro ^'iv^^ov tivut, -ttXkv 
Toy 5'sAs;^oyj, ku] yoi^ ZTri Tcov /iXoc^Zv 
xcit iTiri Tcov <pyAA<yv lyjii. Miyi^il ^i 
^iyot, xxt y«4^ ^M^iKoiTFny^v; £| diirm 
T 2 



140 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



121 



^ne'flStr'oSh^^^^^^^^^ Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres ? 

trees! Or of the groves of . ^ . . t t i 

oSn'/S irth^'fauhe^ ^^^^ oceano propior gent India lucos, 

bonnrlof the earth? whtre no T?,,i.^ ^^* * -l" o u* •• 

arrows can soar JtiXtremi sious orbis T uDi aera vmcere summum 



sAAoWej, x.xB'oiTrip tSv vi^poyrZv, u v,pm- 
rui el iy^a^ioi Tr^oq ret, ^'i^y^xToi uvri 
x-tKiOeg. To 5' civ^og kui t? o^h KscXoy. 

a^l KXt i-i^CiVOVg TTOliTv || CCVTOV. Kxi 

^x^fcecxahg, ho kui TvXXiyovcriv oi iciT^»t. 

TtViTeCt ^l U TXVTTfig KCci TO KOfifil, X.XI 

peg/, XXI TrXi/iyita-tig, kx) xCrof/^xroy Xfiv 
o-)^ucriug. "Orxv Ti xoTir^, fiiTX T^ircv 

iTOg ivB-vg aVX^lZXcUnxi, Uo>.V 2i TO 

dlid^6v l<fl, Kxt d^vftog f^zyxg 9reg; to? 

0}}Ci9('/xoi^ vofAov. The Acanthus of 
Theophrastus is certainly the Egyp- 
tian Acacia, from which we obtain 
that sort of gum, which is com- 
monly known by the name of Gum 
Arabic. Ihere is only one thing, 
in which the Acacia differs from the 
Acanthus ; the trunk of it is prickly, 
as well as the other parts. But in 
this particular Theophrastus might 
have been misinformed : in other 
circumstances theyagrec sufficiently. 
The juice of the unripe pods is now 
used at Cairo, in dressing leather ; 
and Prosper Alpinus, wiio had ga- 
thered the gum from this tree with 
his own hands, affirms that no other 
sort of tree bears any gum, either 
in Egypt or Arabia. But, though 
it be allowed that the Acacia is the 
Acanthus of Theophrastus, yet there 
remains a great difficulty to recon- 
cile what Virgil says of it in this 
place with the description of that 
tree. It is certain that the fruit of 
the Acacia, or Acajilhus, is a pod, 
and bears no resemblance of a berry. 
Bodseus a Stapel has proposed a 
solution of this difficulty. He ob- 
serves that the flowers grow in little 
balls, which Virgil might therefore 
poetically call berries -, though that 
word strictly belongs to small round 
fruits. Prosper Alpinus has given 
a particular description of them: 



" Flores parvos, pallidos, subflavos, 
" atque etiam albos, rotundos, par- 
*' vos lanae floccos imitantes, platani 
" fructibus forma plane similes, his 
" tamen longe minores, et nihil 
*' aliud flos hujusce arboris videtur, 
'' quam mollis lanugo parvum ro- 
" tundumque globulum effiarmans, 
'' non ingrati odoris." But might 
not Virgil as well call the globules 
of gum berries ? Mr. B — seems to 
have been of this opinion : 



Where ever-ffreen 



Acanthus rises with his gummy stem. 

We shall consider the other Acan- 
thus, in the note on ver. 123. of the 
fourth Georgick. 

120. Nemora jEthiopum molli ca- 
nentia lana.'] These forests, that are 
hoary with soft wool, are the cotton- 
trees. They grow usually to about 
fifteen feet in height ; the cotton is 
a soft substance, growing within a 
greenish husk, and serving to de- 
fend the seeds. 

121. Velleraque n t foliis depectant 
tenuia Seres.'] The Seres were a peo- 
ple of India, who furnished the other 
parts of the world with silk. The 
ancients were generally ignorant of 
the manner in which it was spun by 
the silk-worms; and imagined that 
it was a sort of down, gathered from 
the leaves of trees. Thus Pliny : 
'' Primi sunthominum, quinoscan- 
" tur. Seres, lanicio syl varum no- 
" biles, perfusam aqua depectentes 
'* frondium caniciem.*' 

122. Propior.'] In the Cambridge, 
and in one of Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts, and in the old Nurenberg 
edition, it is proprior. 

123. Aera vincere summum, &c.] 
The vast height of the Indian trees 
is mentioned also by Pliny, lib. vii. 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



141 



Arboris baud ullae jactu potuere sagittae : 124 
Etgens illaquidem sumptis non tarda pharetris. 
Media fert tristes succos, tardumque saporcm 
Felicis mali, quo non praesentius ullum, 
Pocula si quando saevae infecere novercae, 
MiscLieruntque herbas, et non innoxia verba, 
Auxilium venit, ac membris agit atravenena. 130 



above the lofly gnmmits of 
Iheir trees : and yet those peo- 
ple are no bad archers. Media 
bears bitter juices, and the 
slow taste of the happj' apple, 
than which there is not a 
better remedy, to expel the 
venom, when cruel step-mo- 
thers have poisoned a cup, 
and mingled herbs, with bale- 
ful charms. 



c. 2. " Arbores quidem tantae pro- 
*' ceritatis traduntur, ut sagitti.s su- 
** perari nequeant." 

126. Media fert tristes succos, &c.] 
The fruit here mentioned is cer- 
tainly the Citron. Dioscorides says 
expressly that the fruit which the 
Greeks call Medicum, is in Latin 
called Citrium: T«t ^l Mvi^txa:, Xtyo- 

21 K/Tg;<«, zsUti yva^if^cc. 

Trisils signifies bitter, as iristisque 
lupifii. This must be understood 
either of the outer rind, which is 
very bitter ; or of the seeds, which 
are covered with a bitter skin. The 
juice of the pulp is acid. 

What sort of taste the poet means 
by tardum saporem, is not very easy 
to determine, nor are the commen- 
tators and translators well agreed 
about it. Servius seems to under- 
stand it to be a taste which does not 
presently discover itself. Philargy- 
rius interprets it a taste which dwells 
a long time upon the palate. La 
Cerda takes it to mean that persons 
are slow or unwilling to swallow it, 
on account of its acrimony. Ruaeus 
follows Philargyrius. May trans- 
lates this 



Slow tasted apples Media dolh produce, 
And bitter too ; but of a happy use. 

Diyden renders tristes succos, sharp 
tasted, and tardum saporem, bitter; 
which he applies to the rind : 

Sharp-tasled citrons Median climes pro- 
duce, 
Bitter the rind, but gen'rous is the juice. 



Mr. B makes it a clamwy taste: 

To Media's clime those happy fruits 

belong, 
Bitter of taste, and dummy to the tongue. 

Dr. Trapp translates tristis, pun- 
gent; and follows Philargyrius, with 
regard to tardum saporem : 

Media the happy citron bears, of juice 
Pni?getit, of taste that dwells upon the 
tongue. 

I take the epithet happy to be 
ascribed to this fruit on account of 
its great virtues. Some of the com- 
mentators think it is so called, be- 
cause the tree enjoys a continual suc- 
cession of fruits. 

127. PrcEsenthis.'] Pierius says it 
is proEstantius, in the Lombard ma- 
nuscript : but he adds that prcesen- 
tins is preferred by the learned. 

129. Miscuerunt.'] It is miscue- 
rant in the Cambridge manuscript : 
and miscuerintm one of Dr. Mead's, 
and in some old printed editions. 

130. Membris agit aira venena,'] 
Athenaeus relates a remarkable story 
of the use of Citrons against poison ; 
which he had from a friend of his, 
who was governor of Egypt. This 
governor had condemned two male- 
factors to death, by the bite of ser- 
pents. As they were led to execu- 
tion, a person taking compassion of 
them, gave them a citron to eat. 
The consequence of this was, that 
though they were exposed to the 
bite of the most venomous serpents, 
they received no injury. The go- 



142 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



The tree is large, and very 
like a bay; and, if it did nut 
spread abroad a different 
Mnell, it might be taken for a 
bay : tiie leaves are not shak- 
en off with any winds : the 
flower is very tenacious : the 
Medes chew it for their un- 
savoury breaths, and cure 
with It their asthmatic old 



Ipsa ingens arbos, faciemque simillima lauro . 
Et si non alium late jactaret odorem, 
Laurus erat : folia haud iiUis labentia ventis : 
Flos ad prima tenax : animas et olentia Medi 
Ora fovent illo, et senibus medicantur anhelis. 



vernor being surprised at this ex- 
traordinary event, enquired of the 
soldier who guarded them, what 
they had eat or drank that day, and 
being informed, that they had only 
eaten a Citron, he ordered that the 
next day one of them should eat 
Citron, and the other not. He who 
had not tasted the Citron, died pre- 
sently after he was bitten : the other 
remained unhurt. 

131. Faciemque simillima Lauro.'] 
" This is a verbal translation of 
" Theophrastus : "Ep^^e* 21 to div^^ov 

" Tovro ^vXXoy fiiv ofioiov kxi o-^iTov la-ci 
" rf TJJ5 Aatpf*)?. But it must be ob- 
*' served that in the common editions 
'' we find uv^^eiy^m, which is a cor- 
" rupt reading for "^sicpn^; : which 
" has led Theodorus Gaza into a 
" mistake, who translates it Portu- 
" laca. Others finding this passage 
" corrupted, have taken pains to 
" correct it, by substituting ec^^d^vvig 
" for ecv2^ci^v/i?. But I think I have 
" restored the true reading ; for so 
" Athenaeus, lib. iii. informs us that 
'' it ought to be read. This au- 
" thor, quoting this passage of The- 
*' ophrastus, uses ^ecCpvn^, instead of 
'' uv^^d^vvi?. As for the words 

" civd^oi^vvig, xci^vct?, which follow 

" ?«'(p>»}5, I take them to be the gloss 
'^ of some idle commentator, for 
" they are not to be found in the 
" oldest copies." Fulvius Ursinus. 

Both Dr. Mead's manuscripts 
havefacieque. 

134. Flos ad prima tenaxJ2 
" Though some manuscripts have 
*' apprime, I prefer ad prima, which 
" I find in the most ancient copies. 
" This reading seems to have been 



" allowed also by Arusianus. And 
" in an old manuscript of Terence 
" we find, Meis me omnibus scio esse 
" ad prima obsequentem. 'Efct vu. 
" TT^mei is no inelegant Greek fi- 
" gure." PiERius. 

Servius reads apprima, which he 
says is put adverbially, like Et pede 
terram. crehra. ferit , for crebro. The 
King's, the Cambridge, and the 
Bodleian manuscripts have ad prima, 
which is acknowledged also by 
Heinsius. 

134. Animas et olentia Medi ora 
fovent illo.'] Grimoaldus refers illo 
to the flower: but it is generally 
thought to refer to the fruit. The- 
ophrastus ascribes this virtue to the 
fruit : '£«» y«^ t<5 I4''5C'*5 6» to t^eifAu >) 
Iv fij^Aft* Tjv/, TO 'ia-uhv Toy fi^Xov hcTFiKrn 

itg TO WftflC KXl KXTU^0^KO-*l, ZTOIU TV^V 

oa-fih iiluxv. Pliny says the Par- 
thians are subject to a stinking 
breath, on account of the variety of 
their food, and their hard drinking: 
and that their great men cure this 
disorder with the seeds of Citrons. 
" Animae leonis virus grave . . . Ho- 
" minis tantum natura infici voluit 
" pluribus modis, et ciborum ac den- 
*^ tium vitiis, sed maximesenio. Do- 
" lorem sentire non poterat, tactu 
^' sensuque omni carebat ; sine qua 
" nihil sentitur. Eadem commea- 
"■ bat recens assidue, exitura su- 
" premo, et sola ex omnibus super- 
" futura. Denique haec trahebatur 
" e caelo. Hujus quoque tamen re- 
'' perta poena est, ut neque ad ip- 
'' sum quo vivitur, in vita juvaret. 
'' Parthorum populis hoc prsecipue, 
" et a juventa, propter indiscretos 
*' cibos: namque et vino foetent ora 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



143 



Sed neque Medorum sylvae, ditissima terra, 136 B"t neither the groves 

T- J ' .Aleclia, the richest of c( 



Nec pulcher Ganges, atque auro turbidus Her- Ss'^an^rHer,n«s"u:ick wit"h 



mus, 



Laudibus Italiae certent: non Bactra, neque Indi, 



gold, may contend for praise 
with Italy: not Bactra, nor 
India, 



" nimio, Sed sibi proceres meden- 
" tur grano Assyrii mali, cujus est 
'' suavitas praecipua, in esculenta 
" addito." The same author, in 
another place, speaks of the Citron, 
as the most salutary of exotic fruits, 
and a remedy for poison. He there 
compares the leaves of it to the ar- 
bute : he says the fruit is not eaten, 
which we find also in Theophrastus, 
but it has an agreeable smell; as 
also the leaves, M'hich preserve gar- 
ments from being eaten. The tree 
is laden with a continual suc- 
cession of fruits. Several nations 
have endeavoured to transplant it 
into their own countries, but it will 
grow only in Media and Persia. 
The seeds are used by the Parthi- 
ans, for the sake of their breath: 
and there is no other tree of note in 
Media. *' In prsesentia externas 
" persequemur, a salutari maxime 
" orsi. Malus Assyria, quern alii 
" vocant Medicam, venenis mede- 
" tur. Folium ejus est Unedonis, 
*' intercurrentibus spinis. Pomum 
" ipsum alias non manditur : odore, 
" prsecellit foliorum quoque qui 
^* transit in vestes una conditus, 
" arcetque animalium noxia. Ar- 
'^ bor ipsa omnibus horis pomifera 
" est, aliis cadentibus, aliis matures- 
" centibus, aliis vero subnascenti- 
*' buso Tentavere gentes transferre 
*' ad sese, propter remedii prsestan- 
'^ tiam, fictilibus in vasis, dato per 
'* cavernas radicibus spiramento : 
'^ qualiter omnia transitura longius, 
'^ seri arctissime transferrique me- 
" minisse conveniet, ut semel quae- 
'^ que dicantur. Sed nisi apud Me •■ 
" dos et in Perside nasci noluit. 
" Haec autem est cujus grana Par- 



" thorum proceres incoquere dixi- 
" mus esculentis, commendandi ha- 
" litus gratia. Nec alia arbor lau- 
^' datur in Medis." 

Palladius seems to have been the 
first, who cultivated the Citron, with 
any success, in Italy. He has a 
whole chapter on the subject of this 
tree. It seems, by his account, that 
the fruit was acrid : which confirms 
what Theophrastus and Pliny have 
said of it; that it was not esculent: 
" Feruntur acres medullas mutare 
" dulcibus, si per triduum aqua 
" mulsa semina ponenda maceren- 
" tur, vel ovillo lacte, quod praestat." 
It may have been meliorated by 
culture, since his time. 

136. Sed ?ieque, &c.] The poet 
having spoken of the most remark- 
able plants of foreign countries, 
takes occasion to make a beautiful 
digression in praise of Italy. 

137. Pulcher Ganges.^ The 
Ganges is a great river of India, di- 
viding it into two parts. It is men- 
tioned by Pliny, as one of the rivers, 
which afford gold. 

. Juro turbidus Hermus.'] Hermus 
is a river of Lydia ; it receives the 
Pactolus, famous for its golden 
sands . 

138. Bactra.~\ This is the name 
of the capital city of a country of 
Asia, lying between Parthia on the 
west, and India on the east. Pliny 
says it is reported, that there is 
wheat in this country, of which 
each grain is as big as a whole ear of 
the Italian wheat : *' Tradunt in 
^' Bactris grana tantse magnitudinis 
'' fieri, ut singula spicas nostras 
" se.quent." 

Indi.'] He puts the name of the 



144 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



nor all Panchaia, whose rich 
sands abound with frankin- 
cense. This country lias never 
been ploughed by bulls, that 
breathe fire from their nos- 
trils, nor sown with the teetii 
ofacrnci dragon: nor have 
the fields borne a horrid crop 
of men armed with helmets 
and spears, but it is filled 
with lieavy corn, and the 
Massic liquor of Bacchus: 
antl is possessed by olives, 
and joyful herds. 



Totaque thuriferis Panchai'a pinguis arenls. 
Hasc loca non tauri spirantes naribus ignem 140 
Invertere, satis immanis dentibus hydri ; 
Nee galeis, densisque virum seges horruit hastis : 
Sed gravidas fruges, et Bacchi Massicus humor 
Implevere ; tenent oleae, armentaque laeta. 



people, for the country. Mr. B — 
seems to imag^Ine, that Virgil meant 
both the East and West Indies ; 

No nor yet Bactria, nor loth Indies shores. 

Probably the poet may mean Ethi- 
opia in this place : for he has spoken 
already of India properly so called, 
in mentioning the Ganges. 

139. Thuriferis Pancha'ia pinguis 
arenis.'] Pancha'ia or Panchoea is a 
country of Arabia felix. See the 
note on ver. 57, of the first Geor- 
gick. The sands hearing frankin- 
cense may be variously interpreted. 
It may mean, that it is in such 
plenty, that it is not only gathered 
from the trees, but even found in 
plenty on the ground. Thus Gri- 
raoaldus paraphrases it: *' Neque 
" Pancha'ia, pars Arabiae soli sub- 
" jecta et consecrata, ubi tanta thu- 
" ris affluentia est, ut non solum in 
*' arbor um corticibus, sed in areis 
" etiam legi queat." I believe areis 
is an error of the Press, and that it 
should be arenis. It may mean also, 
a soil producing frankincense, as 
Ruaeus interprets it: '' Nee tota 
*' Panchaia, dives solo turifero :" 
and Dr. Trapp : 

■■ Nor Panchaia fat 
All o'er, with frankincense-producing 
glebe. 

Mr. B thinks it means, that the 

frankincense is in such plenty, that 
the country may be said to be 
dunged with it : 

Or all Panchaia's plains, manu'd with 
spicy stores. 



" The interpretation of the last of 
" these lines (says he) differs from 
" the commentators, but I think it 
'^ is Virgil's sense. He always rises 
" in his descriptions. After he has 
" mentioned groves of citrons, and 
" golden sandsj Persia and India, 
" what can be greater than to men- 
" tion a country dunged with spices, 
" and what more proper to bring 
'^ the digression home to his sub- 
" ject, and to connect it with what 
*' follows ? But this passage de- 
" serves to be examined more nearly. 
''It is plain, the sense of it turns 
" upon this word pinguis. Now 
" there are too many places in the 
*' Georgicks to be enumerated, 
*' where pinguis terra, pinguis hu' 
" mus, or pingue solum, signifies 
'' lands well manured; but where 
" it once implies dives by its pro- 
" duce, as Ruaeus and his followers 
" understand it, I have not been 
" able to discover." 

140. HcEc loca, &c.] He alludes 
to the story of Jason, who went to 
Colchis for the golden fleece ; where 
he conquered the bulls, which 
breathed forth fire from their nos- 
trils, and yoked them to a plough. 
He also slew a vast dragon, sowed 
his teeth in the ground, and de- 
stroyed the soldiers, which arose 
from the dragon's teeth, like a crop 
of corn from seed. 

143. Bacchi Massicus humor.'] 
Massicus is the name of a mountain 
of Campania, celebrated for wine. 

144. Olece, armentaque.~\ It is ge- 
nerally read oleaque, armentaque. 



GEORG. LIB. IL 



145 



Hinc bellator equus campo sese arduus infert : 
Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taurus 
Victima, saepe tuo perfusi flumine sacro, 147 
Romanes ad templa deum duxere triumphos. 
Hie ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus aestas: 



Hence the warlike horse with 
his lofty neck ruslies into the 
field. Hence thy w hite flocks, 
Clitnmnus, and the greatest of 
victims, the bull, having been 
often washed with thy sacred 
stream, have ltd the Roman 
triumphs to thetemplesof the 
gods. Here the spring is per- 
petual, and the summer shines 
in unusual months. 



But Pierius informs us^ that in the 
Medicean and other ancient manu- 
scripts que is left out after olecp. 1 
find it so in the King's manuscript. 
Heinsius also and Masvicius follow 
this reading. 

146- Hinc albi y Clitumne, greges, 
SfC.~\ Clitumnus is a river of Italy, 
in which the victims were washed, 
to be rendered more pure; for 
none, but such as were white, were 
offered to Jupiter Capitolinus. 

In the King's manuscript it is 
tauri instead o'^ taurus. 

149. Hie ver assiduum, atque alie- 
nis mensibus cestas.'} He describes 
the temperate air of Italy, by saying 
it enjoys a perpetual spring, and 
summer warmth in such months, as 
make winter in other countries. 
Mr. B — contends, that we ought 
to read messibus, for mensibus. " 1 
" do not wonder (says he) if none 
" of the interpreters have been able 
" to make sense of this line : but if 
" we alter mensibus to messibus, it 
*' seems very intelligible. Virgil 
" had already enumerated in the 
" praises of his country, their corn, 
" their wine, their olives, and their 
" cattle, and what could be more 
" properly mentioned after them 
" than their foreign grasses ? he 
" very poetically calls their verdure 
" perpetual spring, and their fre- 
" quent harvests continued summer. 
" The Medico, which he takes such 
" particular notice of in the first 
" Georgick, is cut seven or eight 
" times a year in Italy. There is a 
" passage in Claudian, which may 
" give some light to this in Virgil : 
" Quodgelidi rubeant alieno gramine menses. 



" What Claudian calls alieno gra- 
" 7nine, Virgil expresses by aliena 
'^ messe. What the former describes 
*' by menses qui rubent, the latter 
" paints in a finer manner by cestas. 
" That this passage relates to the 
*' foreign grasses, can hardly be dis- 
*' puted, for another reason, because 
" otherwise Virgil would have left 
" them out of his praises of Italy, 
*' which would have been no incon- 
'* siderable omission*." In pursuance 
of this criticism, his translation of 
this passage is. 

Here everlasting spring adorns the field. 
And foreign harvests constant summer 
yield. 

This is a bold alteration, and not 
warranted by the authority of any 
manuscript. Alienis mensibus sig- 
nifies in unusual months; that is, in 
such months, as other countries do 
not feel warmth. Lucretius uses 
alienis partibus anni, or, as Fulvius 
Ursinus reads, alienis mensibus anni, 
in much the same sense. He is 
proving that something cannot be 
produced from nothing by this ar- 
gument: roses appear in the spring, 
corn in summer, and grapes in au- 
tumn. Now, says he, if these were 
produced from nothing, we should 
see them rise at uncertain times, and 
unusual parts, or months, of the 
year. 

— — Subito exorerentur 

Incerto spatio, atque alienis partibus anni. 

Trebellius, in the life of Gallienus, 
as he is quoted by La Cerda, speak- 
ing of fruits being brought to table 
out of the common season, ex- 
presses it by alienis mensibus. ""Fi- 



146 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



The sheep bear twice, and the 
tree is twice loaded with ap- 
ples every year. But there 
are no ravening tygers, nor 
savage breed of lions: nor do 
aconites deceive the anhappy 
gatherers. 



Bis gravidas pecudes, bis pomis utilis arbos. 150 
At rabidae tigres absunt, et saeva leonum 
Semina: nee miseros fallunt aconita legentes: 



'' cos virides, et poma ex arboribus 
'^ recentia semper alienis mensibus 
" praebuit." The verse, which Mr. 
B — quotes from Claudian, rather 
confirms the old interpretation. He 
speaks of roses blooming in winter, 
and the cold months glowing with 
unusual grass : 

Quod bruma rosas innoxia servet. 

Quod gelidi rubeant alieno gramine 
menses. 

That is, the roses blow, and the 
grass flourishes in winter, which is 
not the usual season. The same 
author, speaking of a star appear- 
ing at noon, calls it alienum tempus: 

Emicuitque plagis alieni temporis hospes 
Ignis. 

I do not understand Dryden's trans- 
lation of the line under considera- 
tion; 

And summer suns recede by slow de- 



May has translated it better : 

And summers there in months unusual 
shine. 

Dr. Trapp's translation is not very 
different : 



And summer shines 



In months not her's. 

150. Bis grav'idce pecudes, bis po- 
mis utilis arbos.'] He tells us the 
sheep are so fruitful in Italy, that 
they breed twice in a year. He 
seems to insinuate the same in his 
second Eclogue, where Cory don, 
speaking of his great riches in sheep 
and milk, says he has no want of 
new milk either in summer or win- 
ter: 



Quam dives pecoris nivei, quam lactis 
abundans. 

Mille meae Siculis errant in montibus 
agnae: 

Lac mihi non asstate novum, non frigore 
defit. 

What stores my dairies, and my folds con- 
tain ; 

A thousand lambs that wander on the plain; 

New milk that all the winter never fails. 

And all the summer overflows the pails ? 
Dbyden. 

Homer speaks of the Lybian sheep 
breeding thrice in a year : 

which is impossible, if the sheep be 
of the same species with those of 
Europe ; which go 1 50 days with 
young according to Pliny; '' Ge- 
" runt partum diebus cl." Mr. B — 
translates pecudes, kine : 

Twice ev'ry year the kine are great with 
young. 

Varro mentions an apple-tree, 
which bears twice : " Malus bifera, 
*' ut in agro Consentino." 

151. Rabidae.'] In the Medicean, 
and other ancient manuscripts, it is 
rapidce, accordmg to Pierius. 

152. Nee miseros fallunt aconita 
legentes.'] The Aconite or Wolfs- 
bane is a poisonous herb, which 
was found in Heraclea Pontica. 
We have several sorts in our gar- 
dens, one of which is very common, 
under the name of Monkshood. 
There are several cases of persons 
poisoned with eating this herb, one 
of which was communicated lately 
to the Royal Society, by Mr. Bacon. 
See Phil. Transact. No. 432. p. 287. 
Servius affirms, that the Aconite 
grows in Italy, and observes, that 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



147 



Nee rapit immensos orbes per humum, neque 

tanto 
Squameus in spiram tractu se colligit anguis. 
Adde tot egregias urbes, operumque laborem : 
Tot congesta manu praeruptis oppida saxis; 156 
Fluminaque antiquos subterlabentia muros. 
An mare, quod supra, memorem, quodque alluit 

infra ? 



Nor does the scaly serpent 
trail his immense folds along 
the ground, nor collect his 
length into so vast a spire. 
Add to this so many famous 
cities, and stupendous works: 
so many towns built on the 
rocky cliflfs : and rivers slid- 
ingunderancient walls. Shalt 
I mention the sea which 
washes it above, and that 
which washes it below? 



the Poet does not deny it, but art- 
fully insinuates, that it is so well 
known to the inhabitants, that they 
are in no danger of being deceived 
by it. Dryden's translation seems 
to be according to this interpreta- 
tion: 

Nor pois'nous Aconite is here produc'd. 
Or grows unknown, or is, when known, 
refus'd. 

I do not find however that this 
poisonous plant is now found com- 
mon in Italy : or that it was deemed 
a plant of that country by the an- 
cients. 

153. Nee rapit immensos, &c.] He 
does not deny that there are ser- 
pents in Italy, but he says they are 
not so large or so terrible as those 
of other countries. 

155. Lahorem.'] In the King's 
manuscript it is labores. 

156. Congesta manu prcEriiptis 
oppida saxis.'] This is generally 
understood to mean towns built 
on rocky cliffs, as I have trans- 
lated it. Thus Grimoaldus pa- 
raphrases : " Extant oppida non 
'* pauca, hominum industriis, et 
" laboribus, in promontorii's collo- 
** cata." Ruseus also interprets it, 
" Oppida manu extructa in altis 
*' rupibus." Thus also Dryden 
translates it : 

Our forts on steepy hills : 

And Dr. Trapp : 



On tops 

Of craggy hills so many towns uprear'd. 

La Cerda takes it to mean towns, 
in which buildings are raised by 
human industry, like rocks and pre- 
cipices : " Oppida in quibus aedifi- 
*' cia in star pracipitii et rupium ef- 
" formata ab humana industria." 
May interprets it towns fortified 
with rocks : 

Towns, that are 

Fenced with rocks impregnable. 

Mr. B — gives it yet another sense : 

Add towns unnumber'd, that the land 

adorn. 
By toiling hands from rocky quarries 

torn. 

157. Fluminaque antiquos subterla- 
bentia muros.^ Some take this to 
mean, that the walls of these towns 
are so built as to give admittance to 
rivers which flow through them. 
Others think the Poet speaks of the 
famous aqueducts. But the general 
opinion is, that he means the rivers 
which flow close by the walls. 
Thus when any action is performed 
close to the walls of a town^ we 
say it is done under the walls. 

15S. ^n mare, quod supra, memo- 
rem, quodque alluit infra ?~\ In one 
of Dr. Mead's manuscripts it is ab- 
litit. 

Italy is washed on the north side 
by the Adriatic sea, or Gulf of Ve 
nice, which is called mare superum 

V 2 



148 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



grUelt^Laduf^an?"^^^^^^ Anne kcus taiitos ? te, Lari maxime, teque, 159 

Benacas, swelling with waves ._-,, ., „ . _^ 



Ml all '^rml.timf the^ h'aveS'^ Fluctibus ct fremitu assurgens Benace marino ? 

and the moles added to the 
Lucrine lake, 



An memorem portus, Lucrinoqueadditaclaustra, 



or the upper sea ; and on the south 
side, by the Tyrrhene, or Tuscan 
sea, which is called mare inferum, or 
the lorver sea. We have a like ex- 
pression in the eighth ^neid : 

Quin omnem Hesperiam penitus sua sub 

juga mittant ; 
Et mare quod supra, teneant, quodque 

alluit infra. 

159. Lari maxime.'\ The Larius 
is a great lake, at the foot of the 
Alps, in the Milanese, now called 
Lago di Como. 

160. Benace."} The Benacus is 
another great lake, in the Veronese, 
now called Lago di Garda ; out of 
which flows the Mincius, on the 
banks of which our Poet was born. 

Ib'l. Lucrinoque addita claustra, 
&c.] Lucrinus and Avernus are two 
lakes of Campania; the former of 
which was destroyed by an earth- 
quake j but the latter is still re- 
maining, and now called Lago 
d'Averno. Augustus Caesar made a 
haven of them, to which he gave 
the name of his predecessor Julius ,• 
as we are informed by Suetonius : 
" Portum Julium apud Baias, im- 
" misso in Lucrinum et Avernum 
" lacum mari, effecit." This great 
work seems to have been done 
about the time that Virgil began 
his Georgicks. We may gather the 
manner, in which these lakes were 
converted into a haven, from Stra- 
bo the geographer, who, as well 
as our Poet, lived at the time when 
it was done. He ascribes the work 
to Agrippa, and tells us, that the 
Lucrine bay was separated from the 
Tyrrhene sea by a mound, which 
was said to have been made by 



Hercules : but as the sea had broken 
through it in several places, Agrippa 
restored it : 'O dl Aox^Tvos KoP^yroi 

ro fAKKC^, zs-Xdrog dl ayM%irov -zs-XxTiietg, 

sXxvveyrcc rois Tn^vovov ds^ofAivev S* Ivi- 
TToXtig TO xvfAcc roTg ^tif^Zciy, a^i fch zjt~ 
^6vta-^xt ^of^iag, 'Ayg/Trxatj iTrio-Kiveto-iv. 
Thus we find this great work con- 
sisted chiefly in forming moles, to 
secure the old bank, and leave no 
more communication with the sea, 
than was convenient to receive the 
ships into the harbour. Hence it 
appears that we are to understand 
these words of Pliny, mare Tyrrhe- 
num a Lucrino molibus seclusum not 
to mean, that the sea was entirely 
excluded, but only so far as to se- 
cure the bank. This is what the 
Poet means by the moles added to 
the Lucrine lake, and the sea raging s| 
with hideous roar. He calls the new ^ 
haven the Julian water ; as we saw 
just now, in Suetonius, that Augus- 
tus gave it the name of the Julian 
port. It remains now, that we ex- 
plain what the Poet means by the 
Tuscan tide being let into the Aver- 
nian straits. We find in Strabo, 
that the lake Avernus lay near the 
Lucrine bay, but more within land : 
Tuig ^g Bxttcif (rvn^hg a t£ Aex.g7tog xo'A- 
7r«5, XXI Ivrog rovTov o 'Ao^vog. Hence 

it seems probable, that a cut was 
made between the two lakes, which 
the Poet calls the straits of Aver- 
nus. Philargyrius, in his note on 
this passage of Virgil, says a storm 
arose at the time when this work 
was performed, to which Virgil 
seems to allude, when he mentions 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



149 



Atque indignatura magnis stridoribus aequor, 
Julia qua ponto longe sonat unda refuse, 
Tyrrhenusque fretis immittitur aestus Avernis? 
Hsec eadem argenti rivos, aerisque metalla 165 
Ostendit venis, atque auro plurima fluxit. 
Hsec genus acre virum Marsos, pubemque Sabel- 

1am, 
Assuetumquemalo Ligurem, Volscosque verutos 



and the sea raKiinj with hide- 
ous roar, where the Julian wa- 
ter resounds, the sea being dri- 
ven far back, and the Tuscan 
tide is let into the Avernian 
straitsi The same country has 
disclosed veins of silver and 
copper, and has flowed with 
abundance of gold. The same 
Las produced a warlike race 
of men, the Marsi, and the 
Sabellian youth, and the Ligu- 
rians inured to labour, and the 
Volscians armed 



the raging of the sea on this occa- 
sion: 

— - Indignatum magnis stridoribus 
aequor, 

l65. Hoec eadem argenti rivos, 
&c.] PlJny tells us in lib. iv. cap. 
20. that Italy abounds in all sorts 
of metals, but that the digging 
them up was forbid by a decree of 
the Senate : " Metallorum omnium 
" fertilitate nuUis cedit terris. Sed 
" interdictum id vetere consulto 
" patrum, Italiae parci jubentium." 
In lib. xxxiii. cap. 4. he mentions 
the Po amongst the rivers which 
afford gold. In the same chapter 
he confirms what he had said before 
of the decree of the senate : " Ita- 
" lise parcitum est vetere interdicto 
" patrum, ut diximus, alioquin 
" nulla foecundior metallorum quo- 
*' que erat tellus." At the end of 
his work, where he speaks of the 
excellence of Italy, above all other 
countries, he mentions gold^ silver, 
copper, and iron : " Metallis auri, 
" argenti, aeris, ferri, quamdiu li- 
" buit exercere, nullis cessit." yir- 
gil seems to allude to this ancient 
discovery of metals, by using ostendit 
and fluxit in the preterperfect tense. 

JEris metalla.} Ms is commonly 
translated Brass : but Copper is the 
native metal ; Brass being made of 
Copper melted with Lapis Calami- 
naris. In the Cambridge manu- 
script it is metalli, which is wrong : 



for the ancient Romans did not say 
{PS metallum, but ceris metalla. We 
find auri metalla, argenti metalla, 
and (Eris metalla, in Pliny. 

166. Plurima.'] See the note on 
this word, in ver. 18?. of the first 
Georgick. 

167. HcEc^ In one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts it is lioc, which must 
be an error of the transcriber. 

Marsos.] The Marsi were a very 
valiant people of Italy, said to be 
descended from Marsus, the son of 
Circe. They inhabited that part 
of Italy, which lay about the Lacus 
Fucinus, now called Lago Fucino, or 
Lago di Celano. It is now part of 
the kingdom of Naples. 

Pubem Sabellam.] The Sabelli 
were anciently called Ausones. They 
inhabited that part of Italy, which 
was called Samnium. 

168. Assuetumquemalo Ligurem.] 
The Ligurians inhabited that part 
of Italy, which is now the Republic 
of Genoa. Some have thought that 
assuetum malo signifies accustomed 
to deceit, which was imputed as a 
national crime to the Ligurians, 
and is mentioned by Virgil himself, 
in the eleventh ^Eneid : 



Vane Ligur, frustraque animis elate su- 

perbis, 
Nequicquam patrias tentasti lubricus 

artes : 
Nee fraus te incolumem fallaci perferet 

Auno. 



150 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



with darts: the Decii, the 
Marii, and the great Camiili, 
the Scipio's fierce in war: and 
thee, O greatest C?esar, who 
now being conqueror in the 
farthest parts of Asia, 



Extulit : haec Decios, Marios, magnosque, Ca- 

millos, 
Scipiadas duros bello: et te, maxime Caesar, 
Qui nunc extremis Asiae jam victor in oris 171 



Oil others practise thy Ligurian ai-ts ; 
Thin stratagems, and tricks of little hearts 
Are lost on me. Nor shalt thou safe retire 
With vaunting lies to thy fallacious sire. 

Dryden. 

But it seems scarce probable, that 
Virgil would mention the vices of 
the people, in this place, where he 
is celebrating the praise of Italy, 
I have followed therefore the ge- 
neral opinion of the commentators 
and translators, in rendering ma- 
lum hardship or labour. 

Volscos.'] The Folsci were a war- 
like people of Italy, of whom there 
is abundant mention in the iEneids. 

Verutos.'] " Armatos veruhus, that 
*' is, according to Nonius, armed 
"■ with short and sharp darts. Lip- 
" sius reads, 

" Assuetumque malo Ligurem, Volscos- 
" que veruto: 

'* and verutum and veru is the same ; 
" but I prefer the common reading, 
" verutos from veru, as scutatos from 
" scutum; cinctutos from cinctus," 
Ru^us. 

The Veru is thought to differ 
from the Pilum in the form of its 
iron ; which was flat in the latter, 
but round in the former ; as it is 
described in the seventh ^neid : 

Et tereti pugnant mucrone, veruque 

Sabello. 
And with round pointed Sabine javelins 

fight. 

Dr. Trapp. 

169. Decios.'] The Decii were a 
famous Roman family, three of 
whom, the father, son, and grand- 
son devoted themselves at different 
times, for the safety of their coun- 



try : the first in the war with the 
Latins, being Consul together with 
Manlius Torquatus ; the second in 
the Tuscan war; and the third in 
the war with Pyrrhus. 

Marios.'] There were several 
Marii, whereof one was seven times 
Consul. Julius Caesar was related 
to this family by marriage : where- 
fore the Poet makes a compliment 
to Augustus by celebrating the 
Marian family. 

Camillos.] Marcus Furius Ca- 
millus beat the Gauls out of Rome, 
after they had taken the city, and 
laid siege to the capital. His son 
Lucius Furius Camillus also beat 
the Gauls. 

170. Scipiadas duros bello.] The 
elder Scipio delivered his country 
from the invasion of Hannibal, by 
transferring the war into Africa j 
where he subdued the Carthagini- 
ans, imposed a tribute upon them, 
and took hostages. Hence he had 
the surname of Africanus, and the 
honour of a triumph. The younger 
Scipio triumphed for the conclu- 
sion of the third Punic war, by 
the total destruction of Carthage. 
Hence they were called the thun- 
derbolts of war : thus Virgil, in 
the sixth JEneid : 

Geminos, duo fulmiua belli, 

Scipiadas, cladem Libyae. 

17L Extremis Asice jam victor in 
oris.] This verse, as Ruaeus ob- 
serves, must have been added by 
Virgil, after he had finished the 
Georgicks : for it was about the 
time of his concluding this work, 
that Augustus went into Asia, and 
spent the winter near the Euphra- 



GEORG. LIB. II 



151 



Imbellem avertis Romanis arcibus Indum. 



do3t avert the (Usarmed In- 
dian ^oin the Roman towers. 



tes, after he had vanquished An- 
thony and Cleopatra. 

172. Imbellem avertis Romanis ar- 
cibus Indum.'] Some think the 
Indians here mentioned are the 
Ethiopians, who came to the as- 
sistance of Cleopatra, and are called 
Indians in the eighth ^neid. 

—.- Omnis eo terrore iEgyptus, et 

Indi, 
Omnis Arabs, omnes vertebant terga 

Sabaei. 

The trembling Indians, and Egyptians 

yield ; 
And soft Salceans quit the ivat'ry 

field, 

Dryden. 

Others think he alludes to the In- 
dians, who being moved by the 
great fame of the valour and mo- 
deration of Augustus sent ambas- 
sadors to him to desire his friend- 
ship ; as we find in Suetonius : 
" Qua virtutis moderationisque 
^' fama, Indos etiam ac Scythas, 
" auditu modo cognitos, pellexit 
'^ ad amicitiam suam populique 
'^ Romani ultro per legatos peten- 
" dam." We find also in Florus, 
that after Augustus had subdued 
the people between the Euphrates 
and mount Taurus, those nations 
also who had not been subdued by 
arms, amongst whom he reckons 
the Indians, came to him ^of their 
own accord, bringing him presents, 
and desiring his friendship : '' Om- 
" nibus ad occasum, et meridiem 
" pacatis gentibus, ad septentrio- 
*^ nem quoque duntaxat intra Rhe- 
" num atque Danubium ; item ad 
" orientem intra Taurum et Eu- 
'^ phratem, illi quoque reliqui, qui 
" immunes imperii erant, sentie- 
" bant tamen magnitudinem, et 
" victorem gentium Populum Ro- 
" manum reverebantur. Nam et 
" Scythse misere legatos, et Sar- 



" matae amicitiam petentes. Seres 
" etiam habitantesque sub ipso sole 
" Indi, cum gemmis et margaritis, 
" Elephantes quoque inter munera 
" trahentes, nihil magis quam 
" longinquitatem viae imputabant, 
" quam quadriennio impleverant : 
" et tamen ipse hominum color ab 
" alio venire cselo fatebatur." These 
things happened in the year of 
Rome 724, about the time that Vir- 
gil finished his Georgicks, as he 
himself testifies at the end of the 
fourth book ; 

Haec super arvorum cultu, pecorumque 

canebam, 
Et super arboribus: Caesar dum magnus 

ad altutn 
Fulminat Euphratem bello, victorque 

volentes 
Per populos dat jura, vianique affectat 

olympo. 

From what has been said, we may 
observe that imbellem in this place is 
not to be rendered weak, effeminate, 
or unwarlike, as it is generally trans- 
lated : the meaning of the Poet be- 
ing, that they came in a peaceable 
manner to Augustus, being disarmed 
by the glory of his name, and the 
fame of his great exploits. 

The King's and the Cambridge 
manuscripts have artihus instead of 
arcibus. If this reading be admitted, 
we must render this passage, " dost 
" avert the disarmed Indian by Ro- 
" man arts;" that is, by power and 
government, which he has told us, 
in the sixth iEneid, are the proper 
arts of the Roman people : 

Excudent alii spirantia molHus a»ra. 
Credo equidem : vivos ducent de mar- 
more vultus ; 
Orabunt causas melius ; caelique meatus 
Describent radio, et surgentia sidem 

dicent : 
Tu regere imperio populos ^ Roman e, me- 
mento: 
Hoe tihi erunt artes ; pacisque imponere 
morem. 



152 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Hail, Saturnian land , the great 
parent of fruits, the great pa- 
rent of men ; for thee I enter 
upon subjects of ancient praise 
and art, and venture to open 
the sacred springs: and sing 
the Ascreeau verse through 
the Roman towns. Now is 
the time to speak of the na- 
ture of the fields; what is 
the strength of each of them, 
what their colour, and what 
they are most disposed to pro- 
duce. In the first place stub- 
born lands, and unfruitful 
hills, 



Salve, magna parens frugum, Saturnia tellus, 
Magna virum : tibi res antiquae laudis et artis 
Ingredior, sanctos ausus recludere fontes : 175 
Ascraeumque cano Romana per oppida carmen. 
Nunclocusarvoruraingeniis; quae robora cuique, 
Quis color, et quae sit rebus natura ferendis. 
Difficiles primum terrae, coUesque maligni, 



Parcere subjectis, et debellare super- 
bos. 

Let others better mould the running"^ 

mass 
Of metals, and inform the breathing 

brass. 
And soften into flesh a mar'Ueface : j 
Plead better at the bar; describe the skies. 
And -when the stars descend, and when 

they rise : 
But Rome, 'tis thine alone with awful" 

sway. 
To rule mankind; and make the 

world obey ; 
Disposing peace, and war, thy own ma- 
jestic way. 
To tame the j.roud, the fetter'd slave to 

free ; 
These are imperial arts, and worthy 

thee. 

Dryden. 

173. Salve, magna parens, &c.] 
Pliny has concluded his Natural 
History much after the same man- 
ner: '' Ergo in toto orbe et qua- 
" cunque caeli convexitas vergit, 
«' pulcherrima est omnium, rebus- 
*' que merito principaturo obtinens, 
'* Italia, rectrix parensque mundi 
'' altera, viris, foeminis, ducibus, 
'' militibus, servitiis, artium prae- 
" stantia, ingeniorum claritatibus, 
" jam situ ac salubritate caeli atque 
** temperie, accessu cunctarum 
" gentium facili, littoribus portuo- 
" sis, benigno ventorum afflatu. 
*' Etenim contingit recurrentis po- 
" sitio in partem utilissimam, et 
" inter ortus occasusque mediam, 
" aquarum copia, nemorum salu- 
" britate, montium articulis, fero- 
" rum aniraalium innocentia, soli 
'' fertilitate, pabuli ubertate. Quic- 



'^ quid est quo carere vita non de- 
*' beat, nusquam est praestantius : 
" fruges, vinum, olea, vellera, lina, 
" vestes, juvenci. Ne quos quidem 
" in trigariis praeferri uUos verna- 
" culis animadverto. Metallis auri, 
*' argenti, aeris, ferri, quamdiu li- 
" buit exercere, nullis cessit. Et 
" iis nunc in se gravida pro omni 
*' dote varios succos, et frugum 
" pomorumque sapores fundit." 

176. Ascrceum carmen.'] By As- 
crcean verse he means, that he fol- 
lows Hesiod, who was of Ascra in 
Boeotia, and wrote of husbandry in 
Greek verse. 

177. Nunc locus, &c.] Here the 
Poet speaks of the different soils, 
which are proper for olives, vines, 
pasture, and corn. 

178. EQ In one of the Arun- 
delian manuscripts, and several of 
the old printed editions, it is aut. 

Ferendis.'] In one of the Arun- 
delian manuscripts it is creandis. 

179- Difficiles primum terrce.~] The 
same soil does not agree with olives 
in all countries. Thus Pliny tells 
us, that a fat soil suits them in 
some places, and a gravelly soil in 
others : * ' Glareosum oleis solum 
" aptissimum in Venafrano, pin- 
'^ guissimum in Boetica." The soil 
where Virgil lived is damp, being 
subject to the inundations of the 
Po, and therefore he recommends 
the hilly and stony lands for the 
culture of olives. We find in Pliny, 
that the country about Larissa for- 
merly abounded with olives, but 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



15S 



Tenuis ubi argilla, et dumosis calculus arvis, 
Palladia gaudent sylva vivacis olivae. 181 

Indicio est, tractu surgens oleaster eodem 
Plurimus, et strati baccis sylvestribus agri. 
At quae pinguis humus, dulcique uligine laeta. 



where the bushy fields abound 
with lean clay and pebbles, 
rejoice in a wood of long- 
lived Palladian olives. You 
may know this soil by wild 
olives rising thick, and the 
fields being strewed with wild 
berries. Jiut the ground which 
is fat, and rich with sweet 
moisture, 



that the land being chilled by the 
overflowing of a lake they were 
all lost : " In Thessalia circa Laris- 
*' sam emisso lacu frigidior facta ea 
*^ regio est, oleaque desierunt quae 
'* prius fuerant." 

180. Tenuis ubi argilla.^ May 
translates this, where clay is scarce : 
which is an error j for tenuis signi- 
fies lean or hungry. Argilla is not 
our common clay, but potter's clay, 
which Columella observes is as 
hungry as sand : " Creta, qua 
" utuntur figuli, quamque nonnuUi 
" argillam vocant, inimicissima est 
" [viti] ; nee minus jejuna sabulo." 

181. Palladia.'] Pallas or Minerva 
was said to be the discoverer of the 
olive-tree. See the note on ver. 
18. of the first Georgick. 

Vivacis.] We have seen, in the 
note on ver. 3. of this Georgick, 
that the olive is a slow grower, 
and therefore he here calls it long- 
lived. 

182. Oleaster.] This is. a wild 
sort of olive, which seems to be 
different from the cultivated sort, 
only by its wildness, as crabs from 
apples. That fjant which is culti- 
vated in our gardens under the 
name of Oleaster, is not an olive : 
Tournefort refers it to his genus 
of Elaeagnus. It grows in Syria, 
Ethiopia, and Mount Lebanon j 
Clusius observed it in great plenty 
also near Guadix, a city in the 
kingdom of Granada, as also in the 
south of France and Germany. It 
is thought to be the Cappad'ocian 
Jujubs, which are mentioned by 
Pliny, amongst the coronary flow- 



ers : '^ Zizipha, quae et Cappadocia 
" vocantur; his odoratus similis 
*' olearum floribus." The flowers 
of the Elaagnus are much like those 
of the olive ; but the ovary of the 
Elceagnus is placed below the petal, 
whereas that of the olive is con- 
tained within the petal. They are 
very sweet, and may be smelt at 
some distance. 

183. Plurimus.] See the note on 
ver. 187. of the first Georgick. 

184. At qucB pinguis humus, &c.] 
Virgil here recommends a fat, 
moist, fruitful soil for vines, in 
which he is said to diflFer from the 
other writers of agriculture, who 
say that a very fruitful soil will ge- 
nerally make a bad vineyard. Cel- 
sus, as he is quoted by Columella, 
says the ground for a vineyard 
should be neither too loose nor too 
hard, but approaching to loose: 
neither poor nor very rich, but ap- 
proaching to rich : neither plain 
nor steep, but a little rising: nei- 
ther dry nor wet, but a little moist : 
*' At si noto est eligendus vineis 
*' locus, et status cseli sicut censet 
'' verissime Celsus, optimum est 
" solum, nee densum nimis, nee 
'' resolutum, soluto tamen propius : 
'' nee exile, nee laetissimum, proxi- 
*' mum tamen uberi : nee campes- 
'' tre, nee praeceps, simile tamen 
" edito campo : nee siccum, nee 
" uliginosum, modice tamen rosi- 
'' dum." We have almost the same 
words in Palladius; '' Sed solum 
'' vineis ponendis nee spissum sit 
" nimis, nee resolutum, propius 
*' tamen resoluto : nee exile, nee 

X 



154 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and tbe field which is full of 
grass, and abounding with 
fertility, such as we are often 
wont to look down upon in 
the valley of some hill, where 
rivers are melted down from 
the tops of tiie rocks, and 
carry a rich ooze along with 
them: and such as rises gently 
to the south, and produces 
brakes, detested by the 
crooked plough : such a soil 
will in time produce strong 
vines, abounding with juice: 
such a soil will be rich in 
clusters, and wine, to be 
poured forth to the gods in 
golden bowls, when the fat 
Tuscan has blown his pipe at 
the altars, 



Quique frequens herbis, et fertilis ubere cam- 
pus, 185 
Qualem saepe cava montis convalle solemus 
Despicere : hue summis liquuntur rupibus amnes, 
Felicemquetrahunt liraum: quiqueeditus austro, 
Et filicem curvis invisam pascit aratris : 
Hie tibi pr^validas olim multoque fluentes 1 90 
Sufficiet Baccho vites : hie fertiKs uvae, 
Hie latieis, qualem pateris hbamus et auro, 
Inflavit cum pinguis ebur Tyrrhenus ad aras. 



'' laetissimum, tamen laeto proxi- 
" mum : nee campestre, nee prae- 
" ceps, sed potius edito campo ; nee 
'' sieeum, nee uliginosum, modice 
" tamen rosidum." These authors 
differ very little Srom Virgil. He 
recommends a loose soil j rarissima 
quceque Lyceo ; they say it should be 
rather loose than hard : he recom- 
mends a rich soil ; fertilis ubere cam- 
pus; they say it should be rather 
rich than poor : he recommends a 
rising ground; editus austro; and 
so do they: he recommends a moist 
soil ; they say it should not be dry. 
Besides Columella quotes Tremel- 
lius and Higinius, who agree with 
our Poet, in recommending the foot 
of a hill, which receives the soil 
from above, and valleys, which have 
received their soil from the over- 
flowings of rivers : " Higinius qui- 
** dem secutusTremellium prsecipue 
'' montium ima, quae a verticibus 
*^ defluentem humum receperint, 
" vel etiam valles, quae fluminum 
*' alluvie, et inundationibus concre- 
*' verint, aptas esse vineis asseverat, 
'' me non dissentiente." 

189. Filicem.'] There are several 
sorts of Filex or Fern. I take that 
of which the Poet speaks to be our 
female Fern, or Brake, which covers 
most of the uncultivated, hilly 
grounds in Italy. 



Masvicius has silicem ior filicem j 
whether by design, or by an error of 
the press, I am not sure. This 
reading however is not without 
some foundation -, for Columella 
says flints are beneficial to vines : 
" Est autem, ut mea fert opinio, 
" vineis amicus etiam silex, cui su- 
*' perpositum est modicum terre- 
" num, quia frigidus, et tenax hu- 
" moris per ortum caniculse non 
'^ patitur sitire radices." Palladius 
also uses almost the same words. 
And Mr. Miller observes, that '' the 
'' land which abounds with Fern is 
'* always very poor and unfit for 
'^ vines : but the flinty rocks which 
" abound in Chianti are always pre- 
" ferred, and the vines there pro- 
" duced are esteemed the best of 
'^ Italy." But I take ^Zicem to be 
the true reading, because it is in all 
the manuscripts I have seen or 
heard of; and because Pliny has it, 
when he quotes of this very pas- 
sage : *' Virgilius et quae filicem 
" ferat non improbat vitibus." 

191. Fites.J In the King's ma- 
nuscript it is vires. 

192. Pateris libamus et auro.'] It 
is agreed by the grammarians, that 
pateris et auro is the same with au- 
reis pateris. 

193. Pinguis Tyrrhenus.] The 
ancient Tuscans were famous for 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



155 



Lancibus et pandis fumantia reddimus exta. 
Sin armenta magis studium vitulosque tueri, 195 
Aut foetus ovium, aut urentes culta capellas : 
Salt us et saturi petito longinqua Tarenti, 
Et qualem infelix amisit Mantua campum, 



and we offer the smoking 
entrails in bending chargeis. 
But if your design is to breed 
kine with their calves, or 
lambs, or kids that burn the 
trees ; seek the forests and dis- 
tant fields of fat Tarentum, 
and such as unhappy Mantua 
has lost. 



indulging their appetites, which 
made them generally fat -, thus Ca- 
tullus also calls them obesus Etrus- 
cus. Or perhaps he might allude 
to the bloated look of those, who 
piped at the altars, as we com- 
monly observe of our trumpeters. 

194. Pandis.] Some interpret this 
hollow, others bending, which seems 
the more poetical expression ; thus 
Mr, B 

And massy chargers bending with their 
loads. 

In one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts 
it is patulis, which word seems to 
have crept into the text from some 
marginal comment. 

195. Studium vitulosque.] In one 
of Dr. Mead's manuscripts it is stu- 
dium est vitulosque. 

196. Urentes culta capellas.] We 
find in Varro that the ancient Ro- 
man^, when they let a farm, were 
accustomed to make an article, that 
the tenant should not breed kids, 
because they destroy the trees and 
bushes by browsing upon them : 
" Nee multo aliter tuendum hoc 
" pecus in pastu, atque ovillum, 
*' quod tamen habet sua propria 
" quaedam, quod potius sylvestri- 
" bus saltibus delectantur, quam 
'' pratis. Studiose enim de agresti- 
*' bus fruticibus pascuntur, atque 
'' in locis cultis virgulta carpunt : 
" itaque a carpendo caprae nomi- 
" natae. Ob hoc in lege locationis 
" fundi excipi solet, ne colonus 
" capra natum in fundo pascat : ha- 
" rum enim dentes inimici satio- 
^' nis." This injurious biting of 



goats is also taken notice of by 
Mr. Evelyn : *' Be sure to cut off 
*' such tender branches to the quick, 
'* which you find have been cropt 
'' by goats or any other cattle, who 
" leave a drivel where they bite; 
*' which not only infects the 
" branches, but sometimes endan- 
^' gers the whole ; the reason is, 
" for that the natural sap's recourse 
*' to the stem communicates the ve- 
^' nom to all the rest, as the whole 
" mass and habit of animal blood 
'* is by a gangrene, or venereal 
" taint." 

197. Tarenti.] Tarentum is a c'liy 
of Magna Graecia, part of the king- 
dom of Naples, famous for fine 
wool, according to Pliny: " Lana 
'^ autem laudatissima Apula, etquae 
** in Italia Graeci pecoris appella- 

'^ tur, alibi Italica. Circa Ta- 

" rentum Canusiumque summam 
" nobilitatem habent." 

198. Aut qualem infelix amisil 
Mantua campum.] " This line of 
" Mr. May's, 

" Such fields as hapless Majitua has lost, 

" has something very fine in it. 
" The metre is extremely grave 
" and solemn, as it is remarkably 
" so in the original. There the 
" verse complains, and every word 

'* seems to sigh." Mr. B . 

Augustus Caesar had given the 
fields about Mantua and Cremona 
to his soldiers : and Virgil lost his 
farm with the rest of liis neigh- 
bours ; but he was afterwards re- 
stored to the possession of it, by 
the interest of his patron Maecenas j 
x2 



156 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



where snowy swans feed in 
the grassy river. Here nei- 
ther clear springs nor grass 
will be wanting tor the flocks; 
and what the herds devour in 
a long daj', the cool dew will 
restore to you in a short night. 
That soil generally which is 
black, and fat under the pierc- 
ing share. 



Pascentem niveos herboso flumine cycnos. 
Non liquid! gregibus fontes, non gramina dee- 
runt : 200 
Et quantum longis carpent armenta diebus, 
Exigua tantum gelidus ros nocte reponet. 
Nigra fere, et presso pinguis sub vomere terra. 



which is the subject of the first 
eclogue. 

199- Herboso flumine.'] In one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts, and in se- 
veral of the old printed copies, it is 
herboso \n flumine. 

WO. Beerunt.'] So I read with 
Heinsius, and Masvicius. In the 
other editions it is demnt : but the 
other verbs in this sentence are in 
the future tense. 

201. Quantum longis, &c.] What 
the Poet here says of the prodigious 
growth of the grass in a night's 
time seems incredible; and yet we 
are informed by Varro, that Caesar 
Vopiscus affirmed, that at Rosea, a 
vine-pole being stuck in the ground 
would be lost in the grass the next 
day: " Caesar Vopiscus ^dilicius, 
*' causam cum ageret apud Censo- 
*' res, campos Rosese Italiae dixit 
" esse sumen, in quo relicta pertica 
" postridie non appareret propter 
'' herbam." The same is related 
by Pliny, lib. xvii. cap. 4. 

203. Nigra fere.'] Columella 
blames the ancient writers of hus- 
bandry, for insisting upon a black 
or grey colour, as a sign of a rich 
land : " Plurimos antiquorum, qui 
" de rusticis rebus scripserunt, me- 
^' moria repeto, quasi confessa, nee 
'^ dubia signa pinguis, ac frumen- 
" torum fertilis agri prodidisse, dul- 
" cedinem soli propriam herbarum 
" et arborum proventum, nigrum 
'' colorem vel cinereum. De c^te- 
'' ris ambigo, de colore satis admi- 
^'^ rari non possum cum alios, turn 



" Cornelium Celsum, non solum 
'' agricolationis, sed universae na- 
'' turae prudentem virum, sic et sen- 
" tentia, et visu deerrasse, utoculis 
^' ejus tot paludes, tot etiam campi 
" salinarum non occurrerent, qui- 
" bus fere contribuuntur praedicti 
" colores. Nullum enim temere 
" videmus locum, qui modo pigrum 
" contineat humorem, non eundem 
" vel nigri, vel cinerei coloris, nisi 
" forte in eo fallor ipse, quod non 
'' putem aut in sololimosaepaludis, 
" et uliginis amarae, aut in mariti- 
" mis areis salinarum gigni posse 
" jacta frumenta : sed est manifes- 
'' tior hie antiquorum error, quam 
'^ut pluribus arguraentis convin- 
" cendus sit: non ergo color, tan- 
" quam certus autor, testis estboni- 
" tatis arvorum." Virgil seems to 
have been aware of this objection, 
and therefore cautiously puts in 
fere. Mr. Evelyn however seems 
to recommend a black earth, and 
such as is here mentioned by the 
Poet : " The best is black, fat, yet 
" porous, light, and sufficiently te- 
*' nacious, without any mixture of 
" sand or gravel, rising in pretty 
" gross clods at the first breaking 
'' up of the plough ; but with little 
'' labour and exposure falling to 
^* pieces, but not crumbling alto- 
'* gether into dust, which is the 
'" defect of a vicious sort. Of this 
'' excellent black mould (fit almost 
" for any thing without much ma- 
'' nure) there are three kinds, which 
'^ differ in hue and goodness." 



GEORG. LIB. ir. 



157 



Et cui putre solum, namque hoc imitamur 

arando, 
Optima frumentis : non uUo ex aequore cernes 
Plura domum tardis decedere plaustra juvencis : 
Aut unde iratus sylvam devexit arator, 207 
Et nemora evertit multos ignava per annos, 
Antiquasque domos avium cum stirpibus imis 



and that which is naturally 
loose, such as we imitate by 
ploughing, is fittest for corn: 
from no plain will you seethe 
slow oxen draw more loaded 
waggons home: that also 
from which the angry plough- 
man has removed a wood, and 
felled the groves which have 
stood idle lor many years, and 
subverted the ancient habita- 
tions of the birds from the 
verj' 



Presso pbigiiis sub vomer e ierra^ 
A rich land is universally allowed 
to be good for corn. Virgil here says 
the soil should be deep, so as to be 
fat, even below the share that 
makes a deep furrow ; presso sub 
vomere. I take the epithet presso to 
allude to the custom of laying a 
weight on the head of the plough, 
to make the share enter deeper. 

204. Pulre solum.] Puire signi- 
fies rotten, crumbling, or loose. The 
Poet explains it here himself, and 
tells us it is such a soil, as we pro- 
cure by ploughing. Therefore in this 
place he recommends such a soil 
for corn as is in its own nature 
loose, and crumbling: because we 
endeavour to make other soils so 
by art. Agreeable to this Colu- 
mella tells us, that such a soil, as is 
naturally loose, requires little la- 
bour of ploughing: " Pastinationis 
" expertes sunt externarum gen- 
*' tium agricolae : quae tamen ipsa 
" pene supervacua est iis locis, qui- 
" bus solum putre, et per se resolu- 
" turn est: namque hoc imitamur 
'' arando, ut ait Virgilius, quod 
** etiam pastinando. Itaque Cam- 
" pania, quoniam vicinum ex nobis 
" capere potest exemplum, non uti- 
*' tur hac molitione terrae, quia fa- 
'^ cilitas ejus soli minorem operam 
" desiderat." 

205. Non ullo.'] In the Cambridge 
manuscript it is non nullo, which is 
manifestly an error of the tran- 
scriber. 



206. Decedere^ In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is descendere. 

207. Iratus.'] This epithet seems 
to be added, to express the anger or 
impatience of the ploughman, who 
sees his land overgrown with wood, 
which otherwise might bear good 
crops of corn. 

Devexit.'] It is dejecit, in the Me- 
dicean manuscript, according to 
Pierius. 

209. Antiquasque domos avium, 
&c.] " I understand this place, 
'^ says Mr. B — , in a manner differ- 
" entfrom Ruaeus, and others, who 
'' interpret stirpibus imis, the roots 
'' of the trees. These are connected 
" to domos avium, and consequently, 
*' according to Virgil's clear way of 
*' writing, must relate to the birds ; 
" besides, if they related to the 
" roots of the trees, it vt^ould be an 
'' useless tautology ; for, that the 
*' roots were grubbed up, is said 
" before, nemora evertit. And again, 
"' cum stirpibus imis is the best 
*' expression possible to describe 
'* where the birds' young ones were 
" lodged ; for it is well known, 
" that by getting down into the 
*' bottoms of decayed trees, several 
'* sorts of birds preserve their 
" brood. I translate altum, the 
'^ top of the tree, and not the air, 
" because in fact, when hollow 
*' old trees are felled, in which 
'' birds have young ones, they al- 
'^ ways keep hovering about the 
" top, and making a lamentable 



158 



P. VIRGILIl MARONIS 



tr/"nrs!;'t'&fS"a! Erait: illse altiim nidis petiere relictis : 

soon as the share has been ... 

shlwiube'!!?'''^'^ ''''"'"* '° ^* rudis enituit impulso vomere campus. 



210 



*' noise for several days together." 
According to this interpretation, he 
translates the passage thus : 

— Down with the sounding wood 

The birds' old mansions fell, and hidden 

brood ; 
They from their nests flew upwards to 

the head. 
Long hover'd round, and piteous outcry 

made. 

According to the common interpre- 
tation of stirpibus imis, Virgil is not 
made guilty of tautology : for ne- 
mora evertit does not necessarily 
signify grubbed up the groves j but 
may be interpreted felled the groves. 
Evertere is rendered to fell, in the 
first Georgick, by Mr. B — himself: 

Aut tempestivam sylvis everiere pinum ; 

which he thus translates : 

And timely on the mountain fell the 
fir. 

Therefore the Poet has not expressly 
said that the groves are grubbed up, 
till he mentions cum stirpibus imis. 
Altum, I believe, is never used for 
the top of a tree, especially after it 
has been felled. 

Manililis's description of the fell- 
ing of woods is not very unlike 
that of our Poet : 

— — Ruit ecce nemus, saltusque vetusti 
Procumbunt, solemque novum, nova si- 

dera cernunt. 
Pellitur omne loco volucrum genus, at- 

que ferarum, 
Antiquasque domos, et nota cubilia lin- 

quunt. 

211. At rudis enituit , &c.] In the 
King's manuscript it is aut ; and in 
one of Dr. Mead's it is ei : but in 
the other manuscripts, and in most 
of the printed editions, it is at. Mr. 
B — makes the period to end at 
relictis; and takes the description 



of an unfit soil for corn to begin 
with this line, which he translates 
thus ; 

But where the plough is urg'd on rubhle 

ground, 
Nothing, but wJiiteuitig furrows ^ will be 

found, 

" This, says he, is another of those 
" passages which all the commen- 
** tators have misunderstood, more 
^' or less, for want of some know- 
'* ledge of country affairs. Ruaeus, 
" according to his usual custom, 
'^ only abstracts Pontanus. Virgil 
" speaks here of three sorts of soil, 
" two of which are fit for corn, the 
" other not. The first he describes 
" thus; a loose soil which looks 
*' dark and fat, when turned up 
'' with the plough. Nigra fere, 
" &c. The second is forest, or 
'^ coppice ground ; Aut unde iratus 
" sylvam, &c. The third he de- 
*' scribes in a very poetical manner, 
^^ by the different effect the plough 
" has upon it 3 At rudis enituit, &c. 
'* The loose rich ground, first men- 
" tioned, looks dark, and fat, even 
"' below the piercing of the share, 
*' but the hard rubbly field, quite 
" contrary, is all white and shin- 
" ing, impulso vomere, because the 
" plough must be drove into it ; 
^' such ground not being to be 
" ploughed, but by putting weight 
" upon the head of the beam." I 
believe Mr. B — mistakes in trans- 
lating rudis campus, rubble ground j 
for rudis does not signify any par- 
ticular sort of soil, but only that 
which has not yet been cultivated. 
Thus Columella : " Sed nunc po- 
" tius uberioris soli meminerimus, 
'' cujus demonstranda est duplex 
'^ ratio, culti et sylvestris : de syl- 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



159 



Nam jejuna quidem clivosi glarea ruris 212 
Vix humiles apibus casias, roremque ministrat : K 



For the hungry gravel of the 

hilly field will scarce afford 

rofemary for the 



" vestri regione in arvorum for- 
" mam redigemla prlus dicemus. — 
" Incidlum igitur locum considere- 
*^ mus. — Sed jam expedienti rudis 
'' agri rationem sequitur cultorum 
'' novalium cura." Here sylvestris, 
incultus, and rudis are used as sy- 
nonymous terms, to express a field 
that has never been ploughed for 
corn : as rudis, applied to a person, 
signifies one who has had no edu- 
cation ; whence erudire signifies to 
instruct, or educate, that is to take 
away, rudeness^ or roughness; and 
eruditus signifies a well educated, or 
learned person, whose mind is not 
uncultivated. Enituit, which Mr. 
B — takes to mean the whitening of 
the furrows, signifies to shine, or 
look beautiful. This verb, I think, 
is used but once more by our Poet, 
in all his works. It is in the fourth 
^neid, where he describes ^neas 
going forth to hunt with Dido, and 
compares him to Apollo, for the 
splendor of his dress, and beauty of 
his person : 

Ipse ante alios pulcherrimus omnes 

Infert se socium iEneas, atque agmina 

jungit. 
Qualis, ubi hybernam Lyciam,Xanthique 

fluenta 
Deserit, ac Delum maternam invisit 

Apollo, 
Instauratque chores, mixtique altaria 

circum 
Cretesque Dryopesque fremunt, pictique 

Agathyrsi : 
Ipse jugis Cynthi graditur, mollique flu- 

entem 
Fronde premit crinem fingens, atque im- 

plicat auro : 
Tela sonant humeris. Haud illo segnior 

ibat 
-/Eneas, tantum egregio decus enitet ore. 

But far above the rest in beauty shines 
The great Mneas, when the troop he joins: 
Like fair Apollo ^ lahen he leaves the frost 
Of wintry XanthuSfttnd theLycian coast; 



When to Ms native Delos he resorts. 
Ordains the dances, and renews the sports : 
Where painted Scythians^ viix'd with Cre- 
tan bands. 
Before the joyful altars join their hands. 
Himself, on Cynthus walking, sees below 
The merry madness of the sacred show. 
Green wreaths of bays his length of hair 

inclose, 
A golden fillet binds his awful brows: 
His quiver sounds. Not less the Prince 

is seen 
In manly presence, or in lofty mien. 

Dryden. 

Enituit therefore is used by the 
Poet to express, that when a wood 
has been grubbed up, the rude un- 
cultivated land, where it stood, 
appears in full beauty after it has 
been ploughed. 

212. Nam jejuna quidem, &c.] 
Here he begins to speak of the 
hungry soil, which abounds with 
gravel, rotten stone, or chalk. 

213. Casias.] The Kua-iec of the 
Greek writers is not the plant of 
which Virgil speaks in this place. 
Theophrastus, in the fourth chapter 
of the ninth book of his History of 
Plants, mentions it along with 
myrrh, frankincense, and cinnamon, 
and says they all come from Arabia : 
Vinrcti ^h ovv o >^iQoivo?, kxi jJ 1,f4.vp)i», 
xtii « KccTi'oi, Koct STi TO Kmcif^a^ov, Iv rv{ 
Tm'A^dQav %ae,^ ^l<r^. In the fifth 
chapter he seems to describe it as a 
sort of cinnamon, or a plant not very 
unlike it : ITg^; ^l mvotfAa^ov sceti Kcta-i'u; 

recvT itvett cv f^iyUXovi, ccXX^ jJa/xowj 
uyvcv' TCoXvKXci^ovi; di y.x) ^vXa^its» 
Pliny has translated great part of 
what Theophrastus has said in this 
chapter, in the nineteenth chapter 
of his tv/elfth book. In the seventh 
chapter, Theophrastus mentions it 
amongst the spices, which are used 
to perfume ointments: T<« dl «AA<» 



160 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



SoJ Z Xfk wffi ilToi! Et tophus scaber, et nigris exesa chelydris 

lowed by black snakes : 



i7^iv Itt) B-ecXxTTecv KstrxTcif^TriTotr rci 
Je £| 'Ag«<€/(fl65 oiov zr^tx; tS Kivoo^afia, kx) 

rt] K»cr/os. oJg f^lv ovj iig roi u^atf^xret 

^^avToii, (T^iTov rd^i STriKet<rix, kiix^co- 
fAov, &c. The Casia, of which 
Theophrastus speaks in these places, 
is an aromatic bark, not much un- 
like cinnamon, and may therefore 
not improbably be that which we 
call Cassia lignea. It is of this 
bark, which Virgil speaks in ver. 
466. of this Georgick : 

Nee Casia liquid! corrumpitur usus olivi. 

Columella speaks of it amongst 
other exotics which had lately been 
introduced into the Roman gardens ; 
" Mysiam Lybiamque largis aiunt 
'^ abundare frumentis, nee tamen 
" Appulos, Campanosque agros opi- 
" mis defici segetibus. Tmolon et 
"^ Corycion florere croco. Judaeam 
*' et Arabiam pretiosis odoribus il- 
'' lustrem haberi, sed nee nostram 
" civitatem praedictis egere stirpi- 
" bus, quippe cum pluribus locis 
" urbis, jam Casiam frondentem 
'' conspicimus, jam thuream plan- 
'' tam, florentesque hortos myrrha 
'^ et croco." Therefore it could 
not be so common, if at all known, 
in Italy, in Virgil's time, as he 
seems to make it in all the passages, 
where he mentions it, except that 
just now quoted. In the second 
Eclogue Alexis the shepherd makes 
a nosegay of Casia, with lilies, 
violets, poppies, daffodils, dill, hya- 
cinths, and marigolds, which are 
all common herbs or flowers ; and 
it is there expressly mentioned as a 
sweet herb : 



Pallentes violas et summa papavera car- 
pens, 

Narcissum et florem jungit bene olentis 
anethi. 

Turn Casia, atque aliis intexens suavibus 
herlis, 

Mollia luteola pingit vaccinia caltha. 

In the fourth Georgick, it is men- 
tioned with wild thyme and savory, 
both common plants : 

Heec circum Casice virides, et olentia 

late 
Serpylla, et graviter spirantis copia thym- 

brae 
Floreat: 

and afterwards it is mentioned along 
with thyme : 



-Ramea costis 



•Tibi lilia plenis 



Ecce ferunt nymphae calathis ; tibi Can- 
dida Nais 



Subjiciunt fragmenta, thymum, Castas- 
que recentes. 

In the passage now under our con- 
sideration, it seems to be men- 
tioned as a vulgar herb. For other- 
wise the Poet, speaking of a hungry 
gravelly soil, would hardly have 
said, that it was so far from being 
fit for corn, that it can hardly afiford 
a little Casia for the bees. Had he 
meant the aromatic Casia, he would 
never have let slip such an oppor- 
tunity of telling us the advantages 
of such a soil : that though indeed 
it was not fit for corn, yet it might 
glory in producing the sweet Casia 
of Arabia, and perfuming the air of 
Italy with Panchaean odours. The 
Casia therefore here spoken of must 
be some common well known herb. 
Nor is it at all to be wondered at, 
that the Poet should speak of two 
different things under the same 
name. We have seen already, that 
there are both trees and herbs called 
lotus and acanthus. The Romans 
frequently made use of Greek 
names, to express different plants, 
which were common in their own 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



161 



Creta: negant alios aeque serpentibus agros 215 



no soil is said to afford such 
sweet food, or such 



country and afterwards confounded 
the descriptions of both together. 
It may not be amiss also to observe 
that we have a spice, and also a 
common flower, both which we 
call cloves J and that we have a 
common herb in our gardens, which 
we call balm of Gileadj though 
very diflFerent from the tree, which 
affords that precious balsam. It 
has been supposed by some that 
our Lavender is the CasiOf which 
Virgil means in this place : but on 
diligently comparing Theophrastus, 
Pliny, and Dioscorides, it will ap- 
pear to be a very different plant. 
Pliny tells us, that the coronary 
Casia is the same with what the 
Greeks call Cneoron : "Sunt et 
" alia genera norainibus Graecis in- 
" dicanda, quia nostris majore ex 
*' parte hujus nomenclaturse defuit 
" cura. Et pleraque eorum in ex- 
" teristerris nascuntur, nobis tamen 
" consectanda, quoniam de natura 
" sermo, non de Italia est: Ergo 
" in coronamenta folio veneremelo- 
*' thron, spireon, trigonon, cneoron, 
** quod casiam Hyginus voeat." This 
therefore is the casia, which he men- 
tions alittle afterwards,in the twelfth 
chapter of the ninth book, as good 
for bees : " Verum hortis corona- 
" mentisque maximealveariaetapes 
" conveniunt, res praecipui quaestus 
" compendiiquecum favit. Harum 
'' ergo causaoportetsererethymum, 
*' apiastrum, rosam, violas, lilium, 
'' cytisum, fabam, ervilium, cuni- 
" lam, papaver, conyzam, casiam, 
" melilotum, melissophyllum, ce- 
" rinthen." In the twenty-first 
chapter of the thirteenth book he 
tells us, that the Thymelcea, which 
bears the granum Gnidium, is called 
also cneoron.; and describes it to 
have leaves like the wild olive, but 



narrower, and of a gummy taste : 
** Et in quo nascitur granum Gni- 
" dium, quod aliqui linum vocant^ 
" fruticem vero thymelceam, alii cha- 
•' melaeam, alii pyros achnen, alii 
*' cnestron,alii cneoron. Est similis 
*'oleastro,foliisangustioribus,gum- 
" mosis, si mordeantur, myrtimag- 
*' nitudine, semine, colore, et specie 
" farris, ad medicinae tantum usum." 
Dioscorides, m his chapter about 
Thymeldoa, tells us expressly that 
the leaves of that plant, which, he 
says also, bears granum gnidium, are 
peculiarly called cneoron : 'Ex ruvrv^^ 
Kvi^iiog KOKKOi xec^TTog av (TvXXiyirxi. 
Tcc ^g <pv?i>^ct ciyn^ t^tag xxMlrxi 

roV xoti U7FOTl^ia-6oti ^n^civetvrccg Iv a-KiZ. 
Theophrastus makes no mention at 
all of thymelcea, and seems not to 
have known the plant which affords 
the granum gnidium. But in the se- 
cond chapter of his sixth book he 
mentions two sorts of cneoron, black 
and white ; the white one, he says, 
has leaves something like an olive -, 
which agrees with what Pliny has 
said of the thymelcea. Therefore it 
is scarce to be doubted, that the 
white cneoron of Theophrastus is the 
same plant with the thymelcea of 
Pliny and Dioscorides, and conse- 
quently the cneoron, which, accord- 
ing to Pliny, was called casia : and 
hence we may conclude that the 
herb Casia of Virgil is the cneoron, 
or thymelcea, which bears ihe granum 
gnidium. The plant from which we 
have the grana gnidia, or cnidia, is 
the Thymelcea lini folii C. B. and is 
called by Gerard spurge flax, or 
mountain widow -waile; and grows in 
rough mountains, and uncultivated 
places, in the warmer climates ; and 
may therefore very well be taken 
for Virgil's Casia. The Germans 



162 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



crooked clens to serpents. 
That land, which sends forth 
thin mists and flying vapours, 
and drinks in the moisture, 
and returns it at pleasure, 
which always clothes itself 
with green grass, and does 
not stain the share with scurf 
and salt rust, will twist the 
joyful vines about their elms : 
that land abounds with oil: 
that land you will find by 
experience to be good for 
cattle, and obedient to the 
crooked share. Such a soil 
is ploughed about rich Ca- 
pua, and the country which 
lies near mount Vesuvius, 



Dulcem ferre cibum, et curvas praebere latebras. 
Qu8etenuemexhalatnebulam,fumosquevolucres, 
Et bibit humorem, et, cum vult, ex se ipsa re- 

mittitj 
Quseque suo viridi semper se gramine vestit. 
Nee scabie et salsa laedit rubigine ferrum : 220 
Ilia tibi laetis intexet vitibus ulmos : 
Ilia ferax oleo est : illam experiere colendo, 
Et facilem pecori, et patientem vomeris unci. 
Talem dives arat Capua, et vicina Vesevo 



have their grana cnidia from the 
Mezereon, which is a species of Thy- 
melcea. I have not seen the Thy- 
melcea in any of our gardens. 

Roremi} Dryden takes rorem to 
mean dew : 

The coarse lean gravel, on the mountain 
sides. 

Scarce dewy bev'rage for the bees pro- 
vides. 

But it is more probable that Virgil 
means the Rosemary, or Ros mari- 
nus, so called, because it was used 
in sprinkling, as we read in the 
Scriptures of hyssop, and grew in 
places near the sea coast. The prose 
authors generally write the name 
of this plant in one word, rosmari- 
nus, or rosmarinum : but the poets 
commonly divide it. Thus Horace : 

-— - Te nihil attinet 
Tentare multa caede bidentium 
Parvos coronantem marino 
Rore deos, fragiliqae myrto : 

and Ovid, who calls it ros maris: 

Cultus quoque quantus in illis 

Esse potest membris, ut sit coma pectine 

laevis: 
Ut modo rore maris, mode se violave ro- 

save 
Implicet. 

214. Tophus scaber.^ 1 take this 
to be what we call rotten stone. 
pliny says it is of a crumbling na- 



ture : " Nam tophus scaler naiura 
*^ friabilis expetitur quoque ab au- 
" toribus." 

21 6. Latebras.~\ In the King's 
manuscript it is tenebras. 

217- Q«ce tenuem exhalat nebulam, 
&c.] The soil, which the Poet here 
describes in the last place, we are 
told is fit for all the beforementioned 
purposes : for vines, olives, cattle, 
and corn. 

218. Et bibit.^ In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is qucB bibit. 

219' Quceque suo viridi, &c.] 
Pierius observes, that in the most 
ancient Roman manuscript this verse 
runs thus : 

Quasque suo semper viridi se gramine 
vestit. 

220. Nee] In one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts it is hcBC, which must 
be an error of the transcriber. 

221. Ilia tibi Icetis.'] In one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts it is Ilia tibi 
in hjetis. 

222. Oleo.'] So I read it with 
Heinsius : and so Pierius found it 
in the most ancient Roman manu- 
script, and iu the Medicean, and 
another very ancient one. The 
common reading is oleoe. 

224. Capua.~\ The capital city 
of Campania. 

Vesevo^ ** Servius is mistaken. 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



163 



Ora jiigo, et vacuis Clanius non aequus Acerris. 
Nunc, quo c(uamque modo possis cognoscere, 

dicam. 
Rara sit, an supra morem si densa requiras, 
Altera frumentis quoniam favet, altera Baccho, 
Densa magis Cereri, rarissima quaeque Lyaeo, 
Ante locum capies oculis, alteque jubebis 230 
In solido puteum demitti, omnemque repones 
Rursushumum, et pedibus summas aequabis are- 
nas. 



and on the banks of the CMa- 
nias, which does not spare de- 

fopulated Acerrae. JNowwill 
tell by what means you may 
distinguish each sort of soil. 
If you desire to know whether 
it is loose or hard, because one 
is good for corn, the other for 
vines, the hard to be chosen 
by Ceies and the most loose 
by Bacchus; first choose out a 
place, and then order a pit 
to be digged where the ground 
is solid, tnen throw in all the 
earth again, and tread it well 
down. 



*' when he affirms, that Vesevus is a 
^' mountain of Liguria, under the 
'^ Alps : for that is called Vesulus, 
*' and is mentioned by Virgil in an- 
" other place : Vesulus quern pinifer 
" affert. But the Vesevus, of which 
" Virgil speaks in this place, is a 
*' mountainof Campania, called also 
*' Vesuvius and Vesvius." Pierius. 

225. Om.] Aulus Gellius tells 
us, that he had met with an ac- 
count, that Virgil wrote at first vi- 
cina Vesevo Nola jugo, but that 
being afterwards not permitted, by 
the people of that city, to bring 
down some water to his neighbour- 
ing farm, he altered Nola to ora. 
Aulus Gellius seems to give no 
great credit to this old story. 

Vacuis Clanius non cequus Acerris.] 
Acerrce is the name of a very an- 
cient city of Campania, which was 
almost depopulated by the frequent 
inundations of the river Clanius. 

226. Nunc, quo quamque modo, 
&c.] The Poet having, in the pre- 
ceding paragraph, informed us of 
the benefits and disadvantages ^of 
the several sorts of soil, he now 
proceeds to instruct us how we 
may be able to distinguish each of 
them. 

227. Rara densa.] Mr, 

B translates these words lioJit 



and heavy : but of these the Poet 
speaks afterwards. Julius Grseci- 
nus, as I find him quoted by Colu- 
mella, sufficiently explains what is 
the true meaning of them. Densa 
signifies such a soil, as will not ea- 
sily admit the rain^ is easily cracked, 
and apt to gape, and so let in the 
sun to the roots of the vines, and 
in a manner to strangle the young 
j)lants. This therefore must be a 
hard or stiff soil. Rara, says he, 
lets the showers quite through, and 
is apt to be dried up with the sun. 
Therefore this must be a loose soil. 
'' Perdensamhumumcaelestes aquas 
*' non sorbere, nee facile perflari, 
*' facillime perrumpi, et praebere 
*' rimas, quibus sol ad radices stir- 
*' pium penetret: eademque velut 
'' conclausa, et coarctata semina 
'' comprimere, atque strangulare. 
*' Raram supra modum velut per 
" infundibulum transmittere im- 
'' bres, et sole ac vento penitus sic- 
'^ cari, atque exarescere." 

230. Jubehis.'] Pierius says it is 
videbis in the Medicean manuscript. 
I find the same reading in the old 
Nurenbergedition. 

231. In^ solido.] The Poet says 
you should dig in a solid place ; for 
if it was hollow, the experiment 
would be to no purpose. 

Y 2 



164? 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



If it does not fill the pit. the 
soil is loose, and will aonn- 
dantly supply the cattle, and 
fruitful vines. But if it re- 
fuses to go into its place 
again, and rises abo%'e the pit 
that has been filled up, the soil 
is thick : then expect sluggish 
clods and stiff ridges, and 
plough up the eanh with 
strong bullocks. But the salt 
earth, and tliat which is ac- 
counted bitter, which is unfit 
for corn, and is not meliorated 
by ploughing, and does not 
preserve the sort of grape, nor 
the true names of apples, may 
be known by the following ex- 
periment. Take close-woven 
baskets and the strainers 
of the wine-presses from the 
smoking roofs. Throw some 
of this bad soil into them, 
with sweet spring water, tread 
them well together; and all 
the water will strain out, and 
large drops will pass through 
the twigs. Then the taste 
will plainly discover itself, 
and the bitterness will distort 
the countenances of those 
'who take it. 



Si deerunt, rarum, pecorique et vitibus almis 
Aptius uber erit. Sin in sua posse negabunt 
Ire loca, et scrobibus superabit terra repletis, 
Spissus ager: glebas cunctantes, crassaque terga 
Expecta, et validis terram proscinde juvencis. 
Salsa autem tellus, et quae perhibetur amara, 
Frugibus infelix : ea nee mansuescit arando, 239 
Nee Baccho genus, aut pomis sua nomina servat : 
Tale dabit specimen : tu spisso vimine qualos, 
Colaque praelorum fumosis deripe tectis. 
Hue ager ille malus, dulcesque a fontibus unda? 
Ad plenum calcentur : aqua eluctabitur omnis 
Scilicet, et grandes ibunt per vimina guttse. 245 
At sapor indicium faciet manifestus, et ora 
Tristia tentantum sensu torquebit amaror. 



233. Deerunt.'] It is deerint in 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, and 
deerit in the old Nurenberg edition : 
but deerunt is the most received 
reading, as Pierius found it in the 
Medicean and other ancient manu- 
scripts, and as I have found it in all 
the manuscripts which I have col- 
lated. 

237. Validis terram proscinde ju- 
vencis.'] He mentions the strength 
of the bullocks, to signify that this 
soil must be ploughed deep. Thus 
we have in the first Georgick,/or/es 
invertant iauri, in the same sense. 

241. Tu spisso vimine qualos.^ In 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts it is 
tum spisso, &c. Pierius says it is 
spissos vimine qualos, in the Lom- 
bard manuscript J but he prefers 
spisso vimine, as it is in the Medi- 
cean, and other copies. 

246. At.^ In one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts it is sat. 

247. Sensu, torquebit amaror.] 
In one of the Arundelian manu- 
scripts it is sensum torquebit amaror, 



where sensum seems to be an error 
of the transcriber for sensu. 

'' Amaror is the style of Lucre- 
" tins, and the true reading; though 
" many read amaro, making it agree 
" with sensu." Servius. 

" Though Servius, and some 
" others affirm amaror to be the 
'' true reading, and taken from 
^' Lucretius, 

" Cum tiii?nur misceri ahsinthiOy tangit 
" amaror: 

" and though Aulus Gellius has 
" collected the testimonies of some 
'' very ancient manuscripts, to sup- 
*' port this reading j yet amaro is 
*' not amiss, as we find it in the 
" most ancient Roman manuscript. 
" For sapor maybe the nominative 
" case both to faciet and torquebit. 
" In the Lombard and Medicean 
" manuscripts it was written amaro, 
" but r has been added with an- 
" other hand and ink." Piejrius. 

The passage of Aulus Gellius to 
which Pierius alludes is the twenty- 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



165 



Pinguis item quae sit tellus, hoc denique pacto 
Discimus ; baud unquam manibus j aetata fa- 

tiscit, 249 

Sed picis in morem ad digitos lentescit babendo. 
Humida majores berbas alit, ipsaque justo 
Laetior : ah nimium ne sit mibi fertilis ilia, 
Neu se praevalidam primis ostendat aristis ! 
Quae gravis est, ipso tacitam se pondere prodit : 
Quaeque levis. Promptum est oculis prae- 

discere nigram, ^55 



The fat soil also mny be 
known by this means ; it 
never crumbles, when it is 
squeezed by the hand, but 
sticks to the fingers like pitch. 
The moist soil produces rank 
grass, and is itself too luxuri- 
ant : oh ! let not mine be too 
fruitful, lest it shew itself too 
strong with early corn. The 
heavy and the light soil dis- 
cover themselves evidently 
by their weight. It is easy 
to distinguisii the black by 
the sight ; 



first chapter of the first book, where 
he tells us, that Hyginus affirmed it 
was amaror in the very book, which 
belonged to the house and family of 
Virgil himself : and that learned 
critic is of opinion that the sense is 
better so, than if we read amaro 
with Pierius : *^ Versus istos ex 
" Georgicis Virgilii plerique omnes 
" sic legunt : 

"At sapor indidumfaciet manifestus; et or a 
*' Tristia tentantum sensu torqueUt amaro. 

" Hyginus autem non hercle ignobi- 
*' lis grammaticus, in commentariis, 
" quae In Virgilium fecit, confirmat 
" et perseverat non hoc a Virgilio 
*' relictum; sed quod ipse invenerit 
" in libro, qui fuerat ex domo atque 
" familia Virgilii, 



•et era 



** TristiatentantiimsensutorquebH amaror. 

" neque id soli Hygino, sed doctis 
" quibusdam etiam viris complaci- 
" turn. Quoniam videtur absurde 
*' dici : sapor sensu amaro iorquet : 
" quura ipse, inquiunt, sapor sen- 
'* sus sit, non alium in semetipso 
" sensum habeat : ac inde sit quasi 
'' dicatur, sensus sensu amaro ior- 
*' quel. Sed enim quum Favorinus 
" Hygini commentarium legisset : 
" atque ei statim displicita esset in- 
" solentia et insuavitas illius, sensu 



'* iorquebii amaro: risit, et, Jovem 
*' lapidem, inquit, quod sanctissi- 
" mum jusjurandum est habitum, 
" paratus sum ego jurare Virgilium 
*' hoc nunquam scripsisse. Sed 
" Hyginum ego dicere verum arbi- 
*' tror. Non enim primus finxit 
*' hoc verbum Virgilius insolenter : 
" sed in carminibus Lucretii inven- 
** turn est : nee est aspernatus au- 
'' toritatem poetae ingenio et facun- 
" dia praecellentis. Verba ex quarto 
*' Lucretii haec sunt. 



Dilutaque contra. 



*' Quum luimur misceri absinthia, tangU 
** amaror. 

" Non verba autem sola, sed versus 
*' prope lotos et locos quoque Lu- 
" cretii plurimos sectatum esse Vir- 
" gilium videmus." 

It is amaro in the King's, the 
Bodleian, and in one of the Arun- 
delian manuscripts. 

253. Neu.'] It is nee in the Ro- 
man, the Medic'ean, and some other 
manuscripts, and ne in others, ac- 
cording to Pierius. I find nee in 
one of tne Arundelian, and one of 
Dr.Mead's manuscripts. In the otlier 
Arundelian it is heu, which, I sup- 
pose, is an error of the transcriber, 
for neu, 

254. Prodit:] The King's manu- 
script and La Cerda have promit. 



166 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



a uh U'drdScover'tt Et quis cul color. At sceleratum exquirere frigus 

pernicions cold; only pitch -rx'/r» •! 

trees, and yews, or black ivy Difhcile est: Diceag tantuni, taxiquc nocentes 

sometimes are au indication ' -^ T 

These rSSrlmember'to p,f- Intcrdum, aut hederse pandunt. vestigia nigrae. 

pare the earth a long while 



His animadversis, terram multo ante memento 



256. Et quis cui color. At scele- 
ratum.'] So I read with Heinsius, 
Schrevelius, Masvicius, and others. 
Pierius says it is et quis cuive color. 
Sceleratum^ in some very ancient 
manuscripts ; and et quis cuique color 
at in the Medicean. In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is et quis cui- 
que color. Sceleratum, — in the other, 
et quis cuique color. At sceleratum. 
Servius approves of the common 
reading, which is et quisquis color. 
At sceleratum. 

257. Picece.l The Picea is our 
common Fir or Pitch-tree, or 
Spruce-Fir. 

Taxique nocentesT] The berries 
of the Yew are said by Pliny to be 
poisonous: '' Lethale quippe baccis 
'* in Hispania prsecipue, venenum 
" inest." Julius Caesar also tells 
us that Cativulcus poisoned himself 
with yew : " Cativulcus rex dimi- 
" dise partis Eburonum, qui una 
" cum Ambiorige consilium inierat, 
'* setate jam confectus, quum la- 
'' bo rem aut belli aut fugse ferre 
*' non posset, omnibus precibus 
" detestatus Ambiorigem, qui ejus 
*' consilii auctor fiiisset, taxo, cujus 
'' magna in Gallia Germuniaque 
" copia est, se exanimavit.'" The 
leaves also are said by the ancients 
to be destructive to horses, which 
we find to be true in England. The 
berries have been eaten by myself 
and many others with impunity: 
but this may be owing to the diifer- 
enCe of climate; for Dioscorides, 
who says it is not alike poisonous 
in all places, affirms that the berries 
are poisonous in Italy, and the 
shade hurtful in Narbonne. Per- 
haps the species may be different ; 



for there is mention of a sort of yew 
in the Pisa garden, which is more 
bushy than the common, and has 
leaves more like a fir, and sends 
forth such a poisonous smell, when 
it is clipped, that the gardeners 
cannot work at it above half an 
hour at a time. 

258. Hederce nigrce.'] The ber- 
ries of our common ivy are black, 
when ripe, and therefore we may 
suppose it to be the ivy here spoken 
of. There is a white Ivy mentioned 
in the seventh Eclogue : 

Candidior cycnis, hedera foimosior alba. 

We find mention of it also in Theo- 
phrastus, Pliny, and Dioscorides : 
but we are not now acquainted with 
any such plant. 

259. His animadversis, &c.] Hav- 
ing explained the several sorts of 
soil, he proceeds to give some in- 
structions concerning the planting 
of vines: and speaks of the trenches 
which are to be made, to receive 
the plants out of the nursery ; of 
taking care that the nursery and 
the vineyard should have a like soil ; 
and that the plants should be set 
with the same aspect, which they 
had in the nursery. 

Multo afile] This is the very 
expression of Theophrastus, who 
says that " the trenches must be 
" made a long while beforehand 
** and digged deep : Tov? 21 yv^ovg 

" ^ti^ovg uii." In another place he 
says it should be a year beforehand, 
with which the other writers agree, 
who mention any determinate time. 
Thus Columella : " Sed et scrobes 
" et sulci plurimum prosunt, si in 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



167 



Excoquere, et magnos scrobibus concidere 
montes : 260 

Ante supinatas aquiloni ostendere glebas, 
Quam laetum infodias vitis genus : optima putri 
Arva solo : id venti curant, gelidaeque pruinse, 
Et labefacta movens robustus jugera fossor. 
At si quos baud uUa viros vigilantia fugit ; ^65 
Ante locum similem exquirunt, ubi prima pa- 
retur 



beforehand, and to cut the 
great hills with trenches: and 
to turn up the clods to the 
northern wind, before you 
plant the joyful vines : those 
fields are best which have a 
loose soil ; this is procured by 
winds, and cold frosts, and by 
loosening and digging the 
ground deep. But those who 
are completely careful, choose 
out the same sort of soil to 
plant the young cuttings 



" locis temperatis, in quibus aestas 
** non est perfervida, ante annum 
" fiant, quam vineta conserantur." 
Virgil seems to express that itshould 
be done a year beforehand; for he 
says the trenches should be exposed 
to the north wind and frosts, that 
is, should lie at least a whole win- 
ter. Excoquere seems to express its 
lying a whole summer. Coquere 
signifies to bake the earth with the 
sun, in the first Georgick : 

Pulverulenta coquat maturis solibus ae- 
stas. 

Mr. Evelyn says, " the longer you 
** expose the mouldy and leave the 
** receptacles open, (were it for two 
'' whole winters,) it soon would re- 
" compense your expectation." 

260. Magnos scrobibus concidere 
mo7ites.] lean hardly forbear think- 
ing that Virgil wrote magnisy which 
will make the sense be to cut the 
hills with great trenches, and agrees 
with Theophrastus, whose very 
words Virgil has almost transcribed, 
as was observed in the preceding 
note. But I propose this only as a 
conjecture, for it is magnos in all 
the copies that I have seen. 

Pierius says, it is circundare in 
the Roman manuscript, instead of 
concidere; and that et is left out in 
the Medicean copyj which, in 
truth is not very unlike Virgil's 
style : 



Terram multo ante memento 

Excoquere : magnos scrobibus concidere 

montes : 
Ante supinatas aquiloni ostendere glebas 
Quam laetum infodias vitis genus : 

without any conjunction copulative. 

263. Gelidceque,'] In one of the 
Arundelian manuscripts it is geli- 
dcBve; but I take gelidceque to be 
the true reading. 

264. Robusiusr\ I have more 
than once observed already, that 
when Virgil speaks of making deep 
furrows, he expresses it by saying 
the bullocks must be strong: so 
here he expresses the depth of the 
trenches by saying the labourer 
must be strong. 

266. Prima paretttr arhoribus se^ 
ges.'] By prima seges he means the 
seminariuni, or nursery, where the 
cutti ngs of the v ines are first planted . 
Dr. Trapp interprets seges, those 
plants which spring from seed; but 
vines are seldom, if ever, propa- 
gated by seed. Seges is sometimes 
used by Virgil for a crop; thus we 
have lini seges for a crop of flax : 
but he uses it often also for the 
field itself; as in ver. 4?. of the 
first Georgick : 

Ilia seges demum votis respondet avari 
Agricolae, bis quas solem, bis frigora 
sensit : 

where seges cannot signify the crop, 
for it would be absurd to say, that 



168 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



fileSi^'Unhefw'aJS/fTal Arboribus segGS, et quo mox digesta feratur 
«eV''Sotire7st"r?ngr''They Mutatam iffnoreiit subito ne semina matrem. 

also mark the aspect on the *^ ... 

bark, Quin etiam caeli regionem m cortice signant : 



a crop of corn stands two summers 
and two winters, as Dryden has 
translated it : 

That crop rewards the greedy peasant's 

pains, 
Which twice the sun, and twice the cold 

sustains. 

In ver. 129- of the fourth Georgick, 
seges is very evidently used for land, 
and not a crop, for it is applied to 
cattle as well as vines : 

. 'i^ecferiilis iWajuvencis, 

Nee pecori opportuna seges, nee commoda 
Baccho. 

267. Q,uo mox digesta feratur.'] 
By these words he means the vine- 
yard, into which the young vines 
are to be removed from the nursery, 
and where they are to continue. 

In the Bodleian manuscript it is 
egesta, instead of digesta. 

268. Mutatam ignorent subito ne 
semina matrem.'] In the King's, the 
Cambridge, the Bodleian, and both 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts it is mutala. 
I find the same reading in most of 
the old editions, in Paul Stephens, 
La Cerda, and several others. Both 
the Arundelian manuscripts, Hein- 
sius, Ruseus, Masvicius, and several 
other good editors, read mutatam. 

" Some years ago, says Pierius, 
" all agreed universally to write 
'' mutata, referring it to semina; 
" though in all the ancient manu- 
" scripts it was mutatam agreeing 
'' with matrem, Virgil's meaning 
*' is, that a like soil be chosen for 
" the nursery and vineyard, lest 
** the young vines should fare like 
" young children, when they are 
" taken from the breasts of their 
" mother and given to a strange 



" nurse : for they pine and cry 
*' after the breast to which they 
" have been accustomed. As for 
" their interpreting semina viulatOy 
*' the removing of the young plants 
" from one place to another, it is 
*' ridiculous." 

Semina does not always signify 
what we call seeds ; but it is fre- 
quently used by the writers of agri- 
culture, for cuttings, slips, and 
layers. 

Matrem is here used to express 
the earth, in which the cuttings 
and young vines are planted. 

In one of the Arundelian manu- 
scripts we have neu, and in one of 
Dr. Mead's nee, instead of 7je. 

269. Cceli regionem in cortice sig- 
nant.] Theophrastus says the posi- 
tion of trees must be regarded, as 
to north, east, or south : "Hv^rsg tl^iv 
svta rat ^ii^^av ice, rs-^ag /Sopp«», koci ret 
■zF^og 'iw xeci ret zr^og f^so-rtfcZ^lxr. Co- 
lumella also advises that all trees 
should be marked, before they are 
taken out of the nursfery 3 and adds , 
that it is of great consequence to 
preserve the same aspect, to which 
theyhavebeen accustomed : " Hanc 
" observationem non solum in vi- 
'' tium positione, sed in ulmorum, 
" ceeierarumque arborum praecipio, 
*' et uti cum de semmario eximun- 
" tur, rubrica notetur una pars, quae 
** nos admoneat, ne aliter arbores 
'* constituamus, quam quemadmo- 
*' dum in seminario steterint. Plu- 
'' rimum enim refert, ut earn partem 
" caeli spectent, cui ab tenero con- 
" sueverunt." Pliny thinks this 
care not to be requisite, because 
the mention of it has been omitted 
by Cato ; and adds that some aflfect 
the very contrary position, in vines 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



169 



Ut, quo quaeque modo steterit, qua parte ca- 
lores 370 

Austrinos tulerit, quae terga obverterit axi, 
Restituant : adeo in teneris consuescere multum 

. est. 
Collibus, an piano melius sit ponere vitem, 
Quaere prius. Si pingiiis agros metabere campi, 
Densa sere : in den so non segnior ubere Bac- 
chus. 275 



that every slip may stand the 
same way, that it may still 
have the same position, with 
regard to south and north; 
such is tlie force of custom in 
tender years. Enquire first, 
whether it is better to plant 
the vine on hills or on a plain. 
If you lay out the fields of a 
rich plain, plant thick ; for 
vines are not the less fruitfnl 
for being close planted. 



and figs; thinking that by this 
means the leaves grow thicker, to 
defend the fruit; and that it will 
not be so ready to drop off. " Non 
*' omisisset idem, si attineret meri- 
*' dianam cseli partem signare in 
" cortice, ut translata in iisdem et 
^' assuetis statueretur horis: ne 
" aquiloniae meridianis oppositaeso- 
" libus finderentur, et algerent me- 
" ridianae aquilonibus. Quod e 
*' diverso affectant etiam quidam in 
*' vite ficoque, permutantes in con- 
*' trarium. Densiores enim folio 
" ita fieri, magisque protegere fruc- 
*' turn, et minus amittere." This 
rule, 1 think, is not observed by 
our modern planters : though It 
seems to have been laid down not 
without some foundation. It is 
easy to see a very great difference 
between the north and south side 
of a tree, after it has been felled : 
for the annual rings are much closer 
on the north side, than on the south. 
Mr. Evelyn says, he '^ can confirm 
*' this advice of the Poet from fre- 
*' quent losses of his own, and by 
" particular trials : having some- 
*' times transplanted great trees at 
[' midsummer with success, (the 
" earth adhering to the roots,) and 
" miscarried in others, where this 
*' circumstance only was omitted." 
271. QucE.'] Both the Arundelian 
manuscripts, Servius, La Cerda, and 
Schrevelius read qua. 



Terga!] In one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts it is terra, which must 
be an error of the transcriber. 

AxL] He uses axis singly for the 
north, because that pole only is 
visible to us. 

273. Collibus y an piano, &c.] 
Here the poet shews the different 
way of planting a plain or a hill. 
In a plain, the vines are to be 
planted close, but on a hill they 
are to be kept at greater distances. 
He then compares a well planted 
vineyard to an army drawn up in 
form of battle. 

Fitem.'^ The common reading is 
vites : but I prefer vitem, as I find it 
in the Cambridge, the Bodleian, and 
in one of the Arundelian manu- 
scripts. Pierius says it is vitem in 
the Medicean, and in several other 
ancient manuscripts. Heinsiusalso 
reads vitem. 

275. Densa.] The adjective densa 
is put here adverbially for dense. 

In den so non segnior ubere.] Denso 
is generally thought to agree with 
ubere : so that the construction must 
be Bacchus non est segnior in denso 
ubere. But then what is meant by 
in denso ubere ? Grimoaldus explains 
it parvis intervalUs positce in ubere 
Icetoque et cainpestri solo : but then 
Virgil should have said densus non 
segnior ubere Bacchus, Ruseus inter- 
prets it in denso agro, taking ubere 
and agro to mean the same; which, 

z 



170 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



^sLg w^ui'^hiifocksf'and Sill tumulis acclive solum, coUesque supinos ; 

sloping hills. 



I believe, cannot be proved. Dr. 
Trapp says *' denso ubere, i. e. dense 
" consito, thick planted. The con- 
** text necessarily requires that con- 
'* struction : though none of the 
*' commentators but De La Cerda 
" seem to have understood it." But 
La Cerda does not seem to join 
denso with ubere; for his explica- 
tion of the words in question is 
'' nam haec densitas, et consertio 
'* vitium nihil impediet, quo minus 
" fertilissimeproveniantvina." His 
note is upon non segnior ubere Bac- 
chus ; which he compares with 



Non segnior agris 



Emergitque Ceres, nee segnior ubere 
Pallas. 

Here is no mention of denso, and it 
is plain that ubere is the ablative 
case after the adjective segnior^ and 
not after the preposition in. I take 
the construction to be Bacchus non 
est segnior ubere, in denso, where 
denso is put as a substantive, and 
means the same, as in denso ordine: 
which I take to be La Cerda's 
meaning. 

Uber occurs so frequently in Vir- 
gil, that it may not be amiss to 
consider all the senses, in which he 
has used it. In the fifth jEneid, it 
is used for the breast of a woman ; 

Cressa genus, Pholoe, geminique sub 
ubere nati. 

And again, in the sixth: 

Infantiiraque animae flentes in limine 

primo, 
Quos dulcis vitaj exortes, et ab uhere 

raptos 
Abstulit atra dies. 

The most frequent use of the word 
is for the dug of any beast. Thus 
it is used for that of a sheep, in the 
second Eclogue : 



Bina die siccant ovis ubera : 
And in the third : 

Cogite ovcs, pueri : si lac praeceperit 
aestus, 

Ut nuper, frusta pressabimus ubera pal- 
mis : 

And in the third Georgick : 

Hinc et amant fluvios magis, et magis 
ubera tendunt : 



And again 



Exhausto spumaverit ubere mul- 



ctra: 

And again : 

Gravido spuerantvixi^Jerelimen : 

And in the third ^Eneid : 

Lanigeras claudit pecudes, atque ubera 
pressat : 

For that of a goat, in the fourth 
Eclogue : 

Ipsae lacte domum referent distenta ca- 

pelhz 
Ubera : 

For that of a cow, in the third 
Eclogue : 

' Ego banc vitulam, ne forte recuses. 
Bis venit ad mulctram, binos alit tibere 

foetus, 
Depono : 

And in the ninth : • 

Sic cytiso pastae distentent ubera vaccce : 

And in the second Georgick : 

Ubera vaccee 

Lactea demittunt. 

And in the third Georgick : 

— Nee tibi foetae 

More patrum, nivea implebunt mul- 
ctralia vaccoe ; 

Sed tota in dukes consuraent ubera na- 
tes: 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



171 



Indulge ordinibus : 



nee secius omnis in unguem 



spare the roves: but at the 
same time let your trees be 
planted exactly. 



For that of a sow, in the third 
Mne'id : 

Inventa sub ilicibus sus 

Alba, solo recubans, albi circum uhera 
nati : 

For that of a wolf, in the eighth 
^neld; 

Procubiiisse lupam : getninos huic ulera 

circum 
Ludere pendentes pueros : 

For that of a mare in the third 
Georgick : 

Depulsus ab ubere matris : 

And in the eleventh ^neid : 

Hie natam in dumis interque horrentia 

lustra, 
Armentalis equce maramis et lacte ferino 
Nutribat, teneris imraulgens ubera labris : 

And of a doe, in the seventh 
^neid : 

— — Matris ab ubere raptum. 

In the second Georgick, it is used 
for the fruitfulness of a field : 

— — Fertilis ubere campus. 

And in the first and third Mneid : 

Terra antiqua, potens armis, atque ubere 

glebce : 

And in the seventh ^neid : 

— — Non vobis rege Latino, 
Divitis uber agri, Trojasve opulent ia 
deerit : 

There are only two passages, where 
uber can be wrested to Ruseus's 
sense. The first is in this Georgick : 

Si deerunt, rarum, pecoriqiie et vitibus 

almis 
Aptius uber erit : 

Where it may as well be rendered 
fruitfulness : " The soil is loose and 



" its fruitfulness will be more fit 
'* for cattle and vines." The other 
is in the third ^neid ; 

Quae vos a stirpe parentum 

Prima tulit tellus, eadem vos ubere laeto 

Accipiet reduces : 

Where it may also have the same 
signification : " that land which pro- 
" duced your ancestors will receive 
" you also with a joyful fruitful- 
" ness:" and therefore the passage 
now under consideration may be 
rendered literally, *' Bacchus is not 
" more backward in fruitfulness in 
^' a close planted vineyard." 

277. Secius.'] In the Bodleian 
manuscript it is segniiis, and in one 
of the Arundelian copies it is serius. 

Omnis in unguem arboribus po- 
sitis secto via liniite quadret.'] This 
passage has occasioned some diffi- 
culty. Several of the commentators 
think he is speaking of the Quin- 
cunx, of which number are Gri- 
moaldus and Ruaeus. La Cerda 
thinks, with better reason, that he 
means planting the vines in a 
square, that is, in the following 
order. 



* -x- * * -x- 

***** 
***** 

The Quincunx has its name from 
the numeral V : three trees being 
planted in that form are called the 
single quincunx. The double quin- 
cunx is the V doubled, which makes 
an X, being four trees planted in a 
z 2 



172 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



80 that every space may square 
with that which crosses it. 
As in a great war, when the 
long extended legions have 
ranged their cohorts, and the 
sqaadroos stand raarshalled in 
the open plain, and the armies 
are drawn op, and the whole 
field waves all over with 
gleaming brass, and the hor- 
rid battle is not yet begun. 



Arboribus positis secto via limite quadret. 

Ut saepe ingenti bello cum longa cohortes 279 

Explicuit legio, et campo stetit agmen aperto, 

Directaeque acies, ac late fluctuat omnis 

^re renidenti tellus, nee dum horrida miscent 



square, with a fifth in the centre. 
This being often repeated forms the 
following figure : 



Now as Virgil compares the dispo- 
sition of the trees in a vineyard to 
an army drawn up in battle array, 
it is evident, that he must mean 
the former figure: the latter not 
being proper for that purpose. The 
Romans usually allowed three feet 
square for every common soldier to 
manage his arms, that is, six feet 
between each, which is a proper 
distance for the vines in Italy, ac- 
cording to Columella, who says the 
rows should not be wider than ten 
feet, nor nearer than four; '^ Sed 
" de spatiis ordinum eatenus prae- 
" cipiendum habemus, ut intelligant 
'* agricolae sive aratro vineas culturi 
*' sunt, laxiora interordinia relin- 
*' quenda, sive bidentibus angusti- 
" ora : sed neque spatiosiora, quam 
*' decern pedum, neque contracti- 
*' ora, quam quatuor." These dis- 
tances may indeed agree very well 
with the warmer climate of Italy 5 
but, as Mr. Miller justly observes, 
the dampness of our autumns re- 
quires our vines to be planted at 
greater distances. He advises them 



to be planted so, that there may 
be ten feet between each row, and 
six feet iu the rows, between each 
vine. 

In ungueni is allowed by all the 
commentators to be a metaphor 
taken from the workers in marble, 
who try the exactness of the joints 
with their nails. It signifies there- 
fore perfectly or exactly. 

Via signifies the spaces or paths 
between the rows. 

Limes is the cross path, which, 
in the square figure^ cuts the other 
at right angles. 

I take the order of the words to 
be thus : nee secius via quadret secto 
limite, arboribus positis in unguem ; 
" and no less let every path, or space 
" square with the cross path, the 
" trees being planted exactly/' 

279. Ingenti bello.'] In one of 
the Arundelian manuscripts it is in- 
genti in bello. 

Cum longa cohortes explicuit legio.] 
A Roman legion consisted of ten 
cohorts. These legions marched in 
a square -, but, in time of battle, 
they were drawn into a longer form, 
which Virgil beautifully expresses 
by longa cohortes explicuit legio. 

281. Ac] In one of Dr. Mead's 
mauuscripta it is at. In several of 
the old editions it is et, 

282. Renidenti.] In the King's, 
both the Arundelian manuscripts, 
and in the old Nurenberg edition, 
it is renitenti. Pierius found the 
same reading in some old manu- 
scripts: but renidenti in the Roman, 
and some others. This is the only 
simile in the second Georgick : but 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



173 



Praelia, sed dubius mediis Mars errat in armis. 
Omnia sint paribus numeris dimensa viarum : 
Non animum modo uti pascat prospectus inanem : 
Sed quia non aliter vires dabit omnibus aequas 
Terra, neque in vacuum poterunt se extendere 
rami. 287 



but doubtful Mars fluctuates 
in the midst of arms. So let 
your vineyard be divided by 
an equal number of spaces ; 
not only to delight a vain 
mind with the prospect, but be- 
cause the earth cannot other- 
wise afford equal strength 
to all, nor the branches ex- 
tend themselves at large. 



never did any poet draw one with 
greater propriety. The rows of 
vines are compared to the ranks 
and files oF a Roman army, when 
they are ranged in the most exact 
discipline, and not yet disordered 
by fighting. The shining beauty 
of the clusters is finely represented 
by the splendor of the brazen arms, 
and not a word is used, that does 
not serve to justify the comparison. 
In both, the design of this order is 
the same: not only to please the 
eye with the beauty of so regular a 
prospect ; but because it is most 
proper for the use, for which they 
are intended. 

Dryden has translated cum longa 
cohortes explicuit legio. 

As legions in the field their front display : 

which is the very reverse of Virgil's 
expression : for, instead of display- 
ing their front, they are drawn up, 
in time of battle, with a narrower 
front, than in their march. 

And equal Mars, like an impartial lord. 
Leaves all to fortune, and the dint of 
sword. 

This is a very bad translation of 
dubius mediis Mars errat in armis. 
Virgil's sense is, that Mars still 
hovers doubtfully between the two 
armies, not having yet determined 
to which side to give the victory, 
not a man has yet stirred from his 
place to give the onset. Mr. 
B 's translation begins : 

As when two mighty armies all in sight, 
Stretch'd on some open plain, begin the 
fight. 



But Virgil does not compare his 
vineyard to two armies : but only 
to that of the Romans. The design 
of the Poet is to celebrate the exact- 
ness of the military discipline of his 
own country in ranging their sol- 
diers; to which the barbarous dis- 
cipline of their enemies was by no 
means to be compared. Dr. Trapp's 
translation comes much nearer the 
sense of his author, and is almost 
literal. 



The long extended legion forms in lines 
Its cohorts ; when the marshall'd squa- 
drons stand 
In the wide plain, and, the whole army 

rang'd. 
The ground all fluctuates with the brazen 

gleam ; 
Nor yet in horrid shock the battle joins. 
But Mars uncertain, hovers o'er the field. 

284. Numeris."] " The word nu- 
'' merus in the singular, and numeri 
*' in the plural, has a great variety 
" of significations^ and means quan- 
" tity as well as number; also order, 
" regularity, exactness, &c. or if it 
" be here taken for number -, it 
** means the same number of paths 
'' crossing one another, to make an 
*' exact square upon the whole : 
*' which must likewise be divided 
*' into squares, and so the distances 
'' must be equal." Dr. Trapp. 

Dimensa^ In one of the Arun- 
delian manuscripts it is demensa. 

- 287. Poterunt se extendere.'] " In 
'' the Roman manuscript it is pote- 
" runt extendere, without the pro- 
" noun se; as elsewhere, /erro ac- 



174 



P. VIRGILIl MARONIS 



Perhaps you may desire to 
know how deep the trenches 
ought to be. For my own 
part, I venture my vine in a 
slight furrow. But trees must 
be planted deep, and far in 
the ground: chiefly the JEs- 
culus, whose root descends 
as low towards hell as its 
branches rise up in the air 
towards heaven. 



Forsitan et scrobibus quae sint fastigia quaeras. 
Ausim vel tenui vitem committere sulco. 
Altius ac penitus terrae defigitur arbos : 290 
JEsculus in primis, quae, quantum vertice ad 

auras 
^therias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit. 



'' cingunt and lateri adglomerant 
'' nostra, without se. But in the 
" Medicean, and other manuscripts, 
'^ se is inserted." Pierius. 

2S8. Forsitan et scrobibus, &c.] 
The subject of this paragraph is 
the depth of the trenches. He says 
the vine may be planted in a slial- 
low trench, but great trees require 
a considerable depth; of these he 
gives the JEsculus for an example, 
and thence takes occasion to give a 
noble description of that tree. 

289. Ausim vel tenui vitem com- 
mittere sulco.'] In one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts it is ter instead oivel. 

The Roman husbandmen seem 
not to have been well agreed about 
the depth of their trenches for 
planting vines. Columella would 
have them from two to three feet 
deep, according to the goodness of 
the soil : but we find in that author, 
that some of his contemporaries 
blamed him, thinking he had as- 
signed too great a depth. Virgil 
seems to approve of a shallow 
trench, but he speaks of it with 
caution. He does not lay it down as 
an absolute rule, in which all were 
agreed, but only says that he him- 
self would venture so to do : in 
which he seems to hint, that the 
common practice of his time was 
different. 

290. Altius ac penitus terrce defi- 
gitur arbosl] Pierius says it is al- 
iior in some ancient manuscripts. 
Heinsius has embraced this reading; 
but I take it to be corrupt. Ausim 
vitem committere ac arbos defigitur is 



such a connection, as, 1 believe, 
Virgil would not have made use of. 
Observe how wretchedly it appears 
in English : *' I would venture my 
'' vine in a slight furrow, and a 
*' taller tree is planted deep in the 
" ground." The reading would be 
tolerable, if it was at instead of ac: 
but no authority is oflfered for this 
alteration. But even, if this was 
admitted, taller in this place, would 
be a poor and useless epithet. I 
take altius to have been altered to 
altior, by some tasteless transcriber, 
who taking a vine to be a tree, 
thought there wanted an epithet to 
make a distinction between vitis 
and arbos. But vines were not ac- 
counted trees; but shrubs, or some- 
thing of a middle nature between 
trees and shrubs. Thus Columella : 
'' Nam ex surculo vel arbor pro- 
'* cedit, ut olea: vel frutex, ut pal- 
'^ ma campestris : vel tertium quid- 
" dam, quod nee arhorem, nee fru- 
" ticem proprie dixerim, ut est 
'' vitis." 

221. Msculus^] See the note on 
ver. 15. 

Quantum vertice, ad auras, &c.] 
This very expression is used of the 
Quercus, in the fourth ^Eneid ; 

Ac velut annoso validam cum robore 

qucrcum 
Alpini Boreae, nunc hinc, nunc flatibus 

illinc 
Eruere inter se certant ; it stridor, et altae 
Consternunt terram concusso stipite 

frondes : 
Ipsa haeret scopulis : et quantum vertice 

ad auras 
^theriaSftanUnn radice in Tartara tendit. 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



175 



Ergo non hyemes illam, non flabra, neque im- 

bres 
Convellunt : immota manet, multosque nepotes, 
Multa virum volvens durando saecula vincit. 295 
Turn fortes late ramos et brachia tendens 
Hue illuc, media ipsa ingentem sustinet umbram. 
Neve tibi ad solem vergant vineta cadentem : 
Neve inter vites corylum sere : neve flagella 



Therefore no storms, no 
blasts, nor showers can hurt 
it; unshaken it stands, and 
outlasts many descents, many 
ages of men. it extends its 
strong branches and arms all 
around, and standing itself ia 
the midst sustains the vast 
shade. Let not your vine- 
yards look towards the setting 
sun; plant no hazels amongst 
your vines; do not take the 
upper 



293. Nonjlabra.'} In one of the 
.Arundelian manuscripts it is 7iec 
Jlabra. 

294. Multosque nepotes.'] So I 
read with Heinsius and Masvicius. 
The same reading is in the Roman 
manuscript according to Pierius. 
Others read multosque per annas. 

297. Ipsa.] It is ipsam in one of 
the Arundelian manuscripts. 

298. Neve tibi ad solem, &c.] In 
this passage are several short pre- 
cepts relating to-vineyards^ with a 
beautiful account of the danger of 
intermixing wild olives with the 
vines, lest a fire should kindle 
among them, and destroy the vine- 
yard. 

Columella, speaking of the aspect 
of a vineyard, tells us that the an- 
cients were greatly divided about it. 
He recommends a south aspect in 
cold places, and an east aspect in 
warm places, if they be not subject 
to be infested with the east and 
south winds, as on the sea coast of 
Baetica: in which case, he says, 
they are better opposed to the 

north, or west : *' Caeli re- 

*' gionem, quam spectare debeant 
*' vineae, vetus est dissensio, Saserna 
*' maxime probante solis ortum, 
*' mox deinde meridiem, tum oc- 
" casum, Tremellio Scrofa praeci- 
** puam positionem meridianam 
'' censente, Virgilio de industria 
*^ occasum sic repudiante. 



*' Neve tibi ad solem vergant vineta ca- 
" dentem. 

'' Democrito etMagonelaudantibus 
'' caeli plagam septentrionalem,quia 
'' existiment ei subjectas feracissi- 
" mas fieri vineas, quze tamen bo- 
*' nitate vini superentur. Nobis in 
** universum praecipere optimum 
'^ visum est, ut in locis frigidis me- 
" ridiano vineta subjiciantur, tepidis 
*' orient! advertantur, si tamen non 
" infestabuntur austris, eurisque, 
^' velut orse maritimae in Baetica. 
" Sin autem regionespraedictisven- 
*•' tis fuerint obnoxiae, melius aqui- 
" loui, vel favonio committentur, 
" nam ferventibus provinces, ut 
" ^gypto et Numidia, uni septen- 
'* trioni rectius opponentur." 

299- Neve inter vites corylum sere.] 
In the King's manuscript it is cory- 
los. The hazel has a large, spread- 
ing root, which would therefore in- 
jure the vines. This seems to be 
the reason of roasting the entrails 
of the goat on hazel spits, as we 
find in this Georgick : 

Et ductus cornu stabit sacer hircus ad 

aram, 
Pinguiaque in verubifs torrebitnus exta 

colurnis. 

The goat was sacrificed to Bacchus, 
because that animal is highly in- 
jurious to vines: and its entrails 
were roasted on hazel spits, because 
that plant is also destructive to a 



176 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



ro?r1«uini'7roV'"thf fo" Summa pete, aut summa destringe ex arbore 

of a tree, so great is the love , o/m-v 

of earth; do not hurt your plailtaS I 0\)\) 

plants with a blunt knife ; ' 

Tantus amor terras : neu ferro laede retuso 



vineyard. The hazel was used to 
bind the vines. See the note on 
rubea, book i. ver. 9.66. 

Nevejlagella summa pete.] Virgil 
is generally understood to mean by 
flagella summa the topmost shoots of 
the tree ; but these are mentioned 
in the words immediately following. 
Most of the translators therefore 
have blended them together. I 
take summa jiagella to mean the 
upper part of the shoot, which 
ought to be cut off, and is not 
worth planting, as Mr. Miller has 
observed ; " You should always 
" make choice of such shoots as 
*' are strong and well ripened of 
" the last year's growth. These 
" should be cut from the old vine, 
" just below the place where they 
" were produced, taking a knot of 
" the two years' wood, which should 
'' be pruned smooth : then you 
** should cut off the upper part of 
*' the shoot, so as to leave the 
" cutting about sixteen inches long. 
" Now in making the cuttings 
*' after this manner, there can be 
*' but one taken from each shoot ; 
" whereas most persons cut them 
" into lengths of about a foot, and 
*' plant them all, which is very 
** wrong: for the upper parts of 
** the shoots are never so well 
'' ripened as the lower part which 
" was produced early in the spring; 
*' so that if they do take root, they 
" never make so good plants, for 
" the wood of those cuttings being 
'^ spungy and soft, admits the 
" moisture too freely, whereby the 
" plants will be luxuriant in growth, 
*' but never so fruitful as such 
" whose wood is closer and more 
'^ compact." 



300. Summa destringe ex arbore 
plantas."] So I read with Heinsius : 
the common reading is summas de- 
fringe. Pierius says it is summas de- 
stringe in some old manuscripts; 
but summa in the Roman, and other 
more ancient copies. One of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts has summas de- 
stringe: the other and the Cam- 
bridge copy have summa defringe. 
The same reading is in the Nuren- 
berg, and several other old editions. 

Columella says the best cuttings 
are those which are taken from the 
body; the next from the branches; 
and the third from the top of the 
tree j which soonest take, and are 
most fruitful, but soonest grow 
old : " Optima habentur a lumbis : 
" secunda ab humeris : tertla sum- 
'' ma in vite lecta, quae celerrime 
*' comprehendunt, et sunt feraciora, 
*' sed et quam celerrime senescunt." 

301. Tantus amor terra.] The 
Poet seems by this expression to 
insinuate, that those shoots which 
grow nearest the earth, contract 
such a liking to it, that they take 
better in it. 

Neu ferro Icede retuso.'] In the 
Bodleian manuscript it is ne ferro 
Icede retuso : in the King's it is neu 
ferro lade vetusto : in one of Dr. 
Mead's it is neu ferro lege recuso. 

A blunt knife not only increases 
the labour of the husbanc!:i::an, but 
also tears the vines, and makes 
wounds that are not so apt to heal, 
as Columella has observed : " Super 
*' caetera illud etiam censemus, ut 
'* duris, tenuissimisque et acutissi- 
'' mis ferramentis totum istud opus 
'' exequamur : obtusa enim, et 
*' hebes, et mollis falx putatorem 
" moratur, eoque minus operis effi- 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



177 



Semina : neve oleae sylvestres insere truncos. 
Nam saepe incautis pastoribus excidit ignis, 
Qui furtim pingui primum sub cortice tectus 
Robora comprendit, frondesque elapsus in altas 
Insentem caelo sonitum dedit. Inde secutus 
Per ramos victor, perque alta cacumina regnat, 
Et totum involvit flammis nemus, et ruit atram 
Ad caelum picea crassus caligine nubem : 
Praesertim si tempestas a vertice sylvis 310 

Incubuit, glomeratque ferens incendia ventus. 
Hoc ubi, non a stirpe valent, caesasque reverti 
Possunt, atque ima similes revirescere terra : 
Infelix superat foliis oleaster amaris. 



nor intermix the truncheons 
of the wild olive. For a 
spark often falls from the 
unwary shepherds, which 
being at iirst concealed under 
the unctuous bark, lays hold 
of the stem, and thence 
getting up into the topmost 
leaves, sends a great crack- 
ling up to heaven; then 
pursues its conquest over 
the boughs, reigns over the 
lofty head, and spreads its 
tianie over the whole grove, 
and thick with pitchy dark- 
ness drives the black cloud 
to heaven ; especially if a 
tempest has descended on 
t' • woods, and a driving wind 
roils the tire along. When 
this happens, they are de- 
stroyed down to the root, and 
can no more arise, or recover 
themselves from the ground ; 
but the unblestwild olive with 
bitter leaves remains. 



" cit, et plus laboris afFert vinitori. 
" Nam sive curvatur acies, quod 
*' accitlit molli, sive tardius pene- 
*' trat, quod evenit in retuso et 
*' crasso ferramento, majore nisu 
" est opus. Turn etiam plagae as- 
" perae, atque insequales, vites la- 
" cerant. Neque enim uno sed 
*' saepius repetito ictu res transigi- 
" tur. Quo plerumque fit, ut quod 
'* pra^cidi debeat, perfringatur, et 
" sic vitis laniata, scabrataque pu- 
'' trescat humoribus, nee plagae 
" consanentur. Quare magnopere 
'' monendus putator est, ut pro- 
" lixet aciem ferramenti, et quan- 
*' turn possit, novaculee similem 
" reddat." 

302. Neve olea sylvestres insere 
truncos.'] It seems by this passage, 
as if it had been a custom to plant 
wild olives in the vineyards, for 
supports to the vines. This the 
Poet justly reprehends, because a 
spark, ligiiting accidentally on the 
unctuous bark of the olive, may set 
the whole vineyard on fire. May 
seems to understand this precept 
of Virgil to relate to the planting of 
wild olives, not amongst the vines. 



but amongst the cultivated olives: 
for his translation is thus : 



Nor yet 



Wild olive trees amongst other olives 

set. 

310. A vertice.] Servius, Gri- 
moaldus, and, after them, Ruaeus, 
think that by a vertice is meant 
from the north ; because that pole 
appears above our heads : hie vertex 
nobis semper sublimis. But I rather 
believe it means only yVom above: 
for the most furious winds do not 
come from the north : and in the 
first Georgick^ we have the south 
wind mentioned to come ab alto : 
which if it be taken to mean from 
high, as some understand it, cannot 
surely be interpreted of the north 
pole: 

' Namque urget ah alto 
Arboribusque satisque fiotus, pecorique 
sinister. 

See the note on book i. ver. 324. 

312. Non a stirpe valent.] They 
are the vines, which he says are 
destroyed for ever; for he men- 
tions the wild olives immediate!) 
afterwards, as recovering them- 
selves. 



178 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Let no man, be he ever so 
wise, prevail upon yoa to stir 
the hard earth, when the 
north wind blows. Then 
winter binds up the country 
with frost, and does not suffer 
the frozen root of the j'oung 
plants to take hold of the 
earth. The best time for 
pianling vineyards is, when 
in tiie glowing spring the 
white bird appears, which is 
hated by the long snakes: or 
else about the first cold of 
autumn ; when the rapid sun 



fJi 



Nec tibi tarn prudens quisquam persuadent 
auctor 315 

Tellurem Borea rigidam spirante moveri. 
Rura gelu turn claudit hyems, nec semine jacto 
Concretam patitur radicem adfigere terrae. 
Optima vinetis satio, cum vere rubenti 
Candida venit avis longis invisa colubris : 320 
Prima vel autumni sub frigora, cum rapidus sol 



315. Nec tibi, &c.] Here we have 
a precept relating to the time of 
planting vines ; which is either in 
the spring or autumn; from which 
the Poet beautifully slides into a 
most noble description of the 
spring. 

31 6. Mover 1.2 So it is in the Ro- 
man manuscript, according to Pie- 
rius, who prefers this reading to 
movere, as it is in the other copies. 
Heinsius also has moveri. 

319. Optima vinetis satiot cum vere 
rubenti.'] Most of the printed edi- 
tions have est after satio : but it is 
wanting in the King's, the Bod- 
leian, both the Arundelian, and both 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts. Heinsius 
also and Masvicius leave out est. 

The epithet rufeen^i may allude to 
the red flowers, which appear in the 
spring: or rather, it may be put 
for bright, or shining ; for purpureus 
is used for any bright colour, and 
the spring has often that epithet. 

320. Candida avis.] The stork, 
a bird of passage, which comes into 
Italy in the spring; or in summer, 
according to Pliny : " Ciconice 
" quonam e loco veniant, aut quo 
" se referant, incompertum adhuc 
" est. E longinquo venire non du- 
*^' bium, eodem quo grues modo : 
*' illas hyemis, has astaiis adve- 
^' nas," 

Longis invisa colubris.] Pliny tells 
us, that storks are in such esteem 



for destroying serpents, that, in 
Thessaly, it is a capital crime to 
kill them, and the punishment is 
the same as for murder: ^' Honos 
*' iis serpentium exitio tantus, ut 
" in Thessalia capitale fuerit occi- 
'^ disse, eademque legibus poena, 
*' quae in homicidam." 

321. Prima vel autumni sub fri- 
gora.] The time which the Poet 
means in this place, must be the 
latter end of autumn, which the 
Romans reckoned to begin on the 
twelfth of August. Their winter 
began on the ninth of November : 
and therefore we may understand 
the tirst cold of autumn to mean 
the end of October, or the begin- 
ning of Noveoiber. This agrees 
with what Columella has said about 
the time of planting vineyards : 
that it is either in spring or au- 
tumn ; in spring, if it be a cold 
or moist climate, or the soil be fat, 
or on a plain j and in autumn, if 
the contrary. He says the time of 
planting in the spring is from the 
thirteenth of February to the vernal 
equinox : in the autumn, from the 
fifteenth of October to the first of 
December; " Sequitur opus vineae 
^' conserendae, quae vel vere vel au- 
^' tumno tempestive deponitur. Vere 
" melius, si aut pluvius, aut frigi- 
" dus status caeli est, aut ager pin- 
^' guis, aut campestris, et uliginosa 
'* planicies : rursus autumno si sic- 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



179 



Nondum liyemem contingit equis, jam praeterit 

aestas. 
Ver adeo frondi nemorum, ver utile sylvis : 
Vere tument terrae, et genitalia semina poscunt. 
Turn pater omnipotens foecundis imbribus 

aether 325 

Conjugis in gremium laetas descendit, et omnes 



(Joes not yet touch the winter 
with his horses, and the heat 
is just gone. The spring 
above all seasons is beneficial 
to the verdure of the groves, 
the spring is beneficial to the 
woons: in the spring the 
lands swell, and require the 
genial seeds. Then the al- 
mighty father iEther de- 
scends into the bosom of his 
joyful spouse with fruitful 
showers, and 



*' ca, si calida est acris qualitas, si 
" exilis, atque aridus campus^, si 
'' macerpraeruptusve collis: vernae- 
" que position is dies fere quadra- 
" ginta sunt ab Idibus Februariis 
" usque in aequinoctium : rursus 
*' autumnalis ab Idibus Octobris in 
** Calendas Decembres." Observe 
that our Calendar varies a fortnight, 
since the time it was settled by Ju- 
lius Caisar : for the vernal equinox, 
which is now about the tenth or 
eleventh of March, was then about 
the four or five and twentieth. This 
must always be remembered, when 
the days of the month are quoted 
from the ancient Roman authors. 

322. Nondum ht/emem contingit 
equis.'l Ruseus interprets this the 
tropic of Capricorn. But the sun 
passes into Capricorn, at the time 
of the winter solstice, which was 
about their twenty-fourth or twen- 
ty-fifth of December. This season 
could not possibly be called autumn 
by Virgil, 

Jam prcEterit astas."] j^stas, sum- 
mer, seems to be put here for warm 
weather. See the note on ver. 312. 
of the first Georgick. 

Ver adeoi] Philargyrius looks 
upon adeo, as an expletive. Ruaeus 
interprets it prcecipue. See the note 
on adeo, book i. ver. 24. 

324. Vere tument terrcE.'] " The 
" earth swells," says Theophrastus, 
'' when it is moist and warm, and 
^' enjoys a temperate air: for then 
" it is yielding, ready to burst, and 



'* full of juice :" 'O^yoi ^' oru.)> mK^o? 

fCiT^cc. TOTg ya^ iiidiei^vTog vi Koti iV' 
QXctTT'^g KUt oXatg iVT^cccpiig io-ri. 

^25. Turn pater omnipotens, 5fc.] 
The Poet calls the Mther or sky, 
the almighty father , or Jupiter: for 
they are the same in the heathen 
mythology. Juno also is the earth, 
which Virgil here calls the wife of 
the almighty ^ther. The earth is 
rendered fruitful by the showers 
falling from the sky: which the 
Poet expresses by MXher descend- 
ing into the bosom of his wife. 
The following verses of Lucretius 
are not much unlike those of our 
Poet, who seems to have had them 
before his eye, when he wrote this 
passage. 

Postremo pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater 
iEther 

In gremium matris Terrai praecipitavit. 

At nitidae surgunt fruges, ramique vires- 
cunt 

Arboribus ; crescunt ipsae, foetuque gra- 
vantur : 

Hinc alitur porro nostrum genus, atque 
ferarum : 

Hinc laetas urbes pueris florere videmus, 

Frondiferasque novis avibus canere undi- 
que sylvas, 

Hinc fessae pecudes pingues per pabula 
laeta 

Corpora deponunt, et candens lacteus 
humor 

Uberibus manat distentis; hinc nova 
proles 

Artubus infirmis teneraslasciva perherbas 

Ludit, lacte mero mentes percussa no- 
vellas. 

326. Lxtce.'] In one of the Arun- 

2 A 2 



180 



P. VIRGILII JMARONIS 



greatly mingling witli iiei 



great *bod?1foa"fshes' all her MaffHUS alit, Hiaffno commixtus coi'Dore, foetus. 

offspring. TJien do the lonely 

bir$!'anTTh?h'^'rdVrenew -^^^^ ^^^ resonant avibus virgulta canoris, 

their love at their stated time : "o- .• , , , t i nrtrk 

the teeming earth brings forth, ii<t venerem cei'tis I'epetunt ai'mcnta diebus: ^x9 

and the fields open their ' 

bosoms to the warm zephyrs: Parturit alinus ager, zephyrique tepentibus auris 



delian, and in one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts it is late: which is a 
very elegant reading, and expresses 
the wide extent of the spring show- 
ers. Late is a favourite adverb with 
Virgil, in this sense. Thus we find 
in the first Georgick : 



Amnis abundans 



Exit, et obducto late tenet omnia limo : 

And 

Omnia ventorum concurrere praelia vidi, 
Quae gravidam late segetem ab radicibus 

imis 
Sublime expulsam eruerent. 

On the other side, it must be said, 
that listce is here no insignificant 
epithet: for the earth may well be 
said to be glad, at the falling of 
these fruitful showers. There is 
an expression something like this 
in the seventh Eclogue : 

Jupiter et Iccto descendet plurimus imbri. 

Here indeed not the earth, but the 
shower, is called joyful : but yet this 
epithet is added to the shower by a 
metonymy, for the shower can no 
otherwise be said to he joyful, than 
as it makes the earth so. 

328. Turn.'] It is oum, in the 
Cambridge manuscript. 

S29. Venerem certis repefunt ar- 
menta diebus.'] The brute part of the 
creation are known to have their 
stated times of propagating their 
species. Aristotle, from whom Vir- 
gil probably took this observation, 
says the general tince for this is the 
spring. The words, which that 
great philosopher uses on this sub- 
ject, will, I believe, not be disagree- 
able, in this place, to tlie learned 



reader: BovMrxi fAv ovv vi (pvi^tg tm 
zs'XiifCtiv, ■ss'ipf Tov ocvrov xpoioi zroiiia-^ai 
T^v ofiiXlxv 'roiVTYiV, orocv he tov ^Ufiavtq 
f>c6TetQoc,?i>iyi ZT^og to ^Ipog uvrn ^s Wiv *i 
Toy gfiJg05 a^ei, hj to, -sTXiifoc, x-oii ToiTViva, 
K»i TTi^u^j KUt TrXeifTu opuoiTt^cg TOV a-vvov- 
eta-fzov. -TroiiiTXt ^l 'ivicc tkv hyjloti Kxt rev 
roxov, Kxl f/HTOTragov kui ^UfAmog, ctov 
rav Tg Ivv^^av UTra. yzy/i, kxi tui Trirtt- 
vav, uv^^anog ^l f^dXi^x Troicrecv co^oiv, 
KXi Tm <rvvxi^£^ct>7rivofAhci)v (^awv TriZfiv 
TToXXu, dia, T9JV ahzxv ttdi tVT^o<pi»v, otrwj 
Kotl XI Tcvi^cUg oXiyo^povixi iWiv, cioy vcg 
Kxt Kvvog, X.XI Tm TfiTVivav ofx TrMovccKig 
7roi6vvTxi Tovg TOKovg. We find some- 
thing like this in Pliny: " Caeteris 
'' animalibus stati per tempora an 
'^ concubitus, homini omnibus ho- 
" ris dierum noctiumque. Caeteris 
" satietas in coitu, homini prope 
'' nulla." Lucretius also mentions 
the spring as the season for the 
generation of animals 3 

Nam simul ac species patefacta 'st verna 

diei, 
Et reserata viget genitalis aura Favoni ; 
Aeriae primum volucres te. Diva, tuum- 

que 
Significant initum percussae corda tua vi : 
Inde feras pecudes persultant pabula laeta, 
Et rapidos tranant amnes ; ita capta le- 

pore, 
lUecebrisque tuis omnis natura animan- 

tum 
Te sequitur cupide, quo quamque indu- 

cere pergis : 
Denique per maria, ac montes, fluvios- 

que rapaces, 
Frondiferasque domos avium, camposque 

virentes. 
Omnibus' incutiens blandum per pectora 

amorem, 
Efficis ut cupide generatim saecTa propa- 

gent. 

330. Parturit almus ager.] In 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



181 



Laxant arva sinus: superat tener omnibus 

humor : 
Inque novos soles audent se gramina tuto 
Credere : nee metuit surgentes pampinus austros, 
Aut actum caelo magnis aquilonibus imbrem : 
Sed trudit gemmas, et frondes explicat omnes. 
Non alios prima crescentis origine mundi 336 
Illuxisse dies, aliumve habuisse tenorem 
Crediderim : ver illud erat : ver magnus agebat 
Orbis, et hybernis parcebant flatibus euri : 
Cum primas lucem pecudes hausere, virumque 
Ferrea progenies duris caput extulit arvis : 
Immissaeque ferae sylvis, et sidera caelo. 



all abound witli gentle mois- 
ture: and the herbs can safely 
trust themselves to the new 
suns : nor does tlie vine-branch 
fear the rising south winds, 
or the shower driven down 
from heaven by the furious 
north : but puts forth its buds, 
and unfolds ail its leaves. J^o 
other days, I believe, shone, 
nor was it any other season, 
at the beginning of the grow- 
ing world : it was then the 
spring: spring smiled over all 
the globe, and the east winds 
forbore their wintry blasts: 
when cattle first drew light, 
and the iron race of men 
lifted up its head from the 
hard fields; and wild beasts 
were sent into the woods, and 
stars into the heavens. 



one of the Arundelian manuscripts 
it is parturit alma Venus. 

332. Gramina.'] In the King's 
manuscript it is germina. 

336. Non alios, &c.] I take the 
Poet's meaning here to be, not that 
there was a perpetual spring, at the 
beginning of the world : but that it 
was the spring season, when cattle 
and men were created. He assigns 
this reason for it ; the new created 
beings would not have been able to 
have sustained the extremities of 
heat or cold j and therefore it must 
have been spring, when they were 
created, that they might have time 
to grow hardy, before a more incle- 
ment season should begin. 

Dryden has greatly debased the 
elegance of these lines, by making 
use of vulgar, and, in this place, 
ridiculous expressions : 

In this soft season (let me dare to sing) 
The world was hatch* d by heaven's im- 

perial King 
In prime of all the year, and holy-days of 

spring. 

340. Cum primce.'] In one of the 
Arundelian manuscripts, and in an 



old Paris edition, printed in 1494, 
it is turn primum. In the Cambridge 
manuscript, it is cum primam. Pie- 
rius says it is cum primcB, in the 
Roman and Medicean manuscripts. 
Heinsius, Masvicius, and some old 
editions, have cum primce. The 
common reading is cwmjorimMm. 

341. Ferrea.'] Some read terrea, 
on the authority of Lactantius : 
but it may as well be supposed, 
that it is an error in the copy of 
Lactantius. Virgil seems to have 
imitated Hesiod : 

Duris.] In some of the old edi- 
tions it is durum. 

Arvis.] In the Bodleian manu- 
script it is armis. 

Ruaeus thinks the Poet here al- 
ludes to the iron age, and the resti- 
tution of the earth by Deucalion 
and Pyrrha, as was related in the 
note on ver. 62. of the first Geor- 
gick. But that learned commen- 
tator seems to have forgotten, that 
Virgil is here speaking of the very 
first age of the world. 



182 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Nor could the tender creation 
have borne so great a labour, 
if there had not been a rest 
between cold and heal, and 
if the indulgence of heaven 
did not favour the earth. 
But to proceed, what branches 
soever yoa lay down in the 
fields. 



Nec res hunc tenerae possent perferre Jaborem, 
Si non tanta quies iret frigusque caloremque 
Inter, et exciperet caeli indulgentia terras. 345 
Quod superest, quaecunque premes virgulta per 
agros, 



344. Si von tanta quies iret, &c.] 
In the old Nurenberg edition it is 
*' Si non tanta quies inter frigusque 
*' caloremque iret." 

345. Exciperet.'] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is h(sc pa- 
reret. 

346. Quod superest, 3fc.] The 
Poet now proceeds to give direc- 
tions about layers; and recom- 
mends dunging, and laying stones 
and shells at the roots. 

Premes.'] Servius interprets this 
demerges, infodies. Hence most of 
the commentators have agreed to 
understand the Poet to speak of 

planting in general. Mr. B is 

singular in understanding virgulta 
premere to be meant of layers: 

Now, when you letid the layers to the 
ground. 

This however I take to be Virgil's 
sense. We have seen at the begin- 
ning of this book, that he recom- 
mends layers, as the best way of 
propagating vines: Propagine vites 
respondent: to this method of pro- 
pagating therefore it is most pro- 
buble that he should allude. And 
besides premere seems more proper 
to express the laying down a branch, 
than the planting of a cutting or 
removing of a young tree. La 
Cerda interprets virgulta premere, 
infodere surculos in scrobibus, and 
endeavours to strengthen it with 
two quotations, neither of which 
seem to me to answer his purpose. 
The first is from Caius: " Quod si 
" vicini arborem in terra presserim, 
'^ ut in meum funduni radices ege- 
'^ rit." Caius speaks here plainly 



of layers. He says a tree is the 
property of that person, in whose 
ground it strikes root : and there- 
fore if I lay it down in such a 
manner, as to make it strike root 
in my ground, it becomes my tree. 
Surely this can be understood only 
of laying down* a branch, which 
extends itself over my ground, and 
heaping the earth about it, which 
is expressed by si terra presserim : 
for I have no right to remove my 
neighbour's tree, or to take cuttings 
from it. See the entire passage. 
'* Si alienam plantam in meo solo 
'' posuero, mea erit, ex diverso 
*' si meam plantam in alieno solo 
" posuero, illius erit. Si modo 
" utroque casu radices egerit: an- 
'' tequam enim radices ageret, illius 
" permanet, cujus et fuit. His 
'* conveniens est, quod si vicini 
'^ arborem ita terra presserim, ut in 
*' meum fundum radices egerit : 
'' meam effici arborem. Rationem 
" enim non permittere, ut alterius 
*' arbor intelligatur, quam cujus 
*' fundo radices egisset. Et ideo 
" prope confinium arbor posita, si 
" etiam in vicinum fundum radices 
'* egerit, communis est." The se- 
cond is from Horace : terra preniam, 
pro infndiam. The words of that 
poet are, 

Satis superque me benignitas tua Ditavit. 

Haud paravero 
Quod aut, avarus ut Chremes, terra pre- 

mam ; 
Discinctus aut perdam, ut nepos. 

Here indeed terra premere does sig- 
nify to bury : but the literal mean- 
ing of the words is to press with 
earth, which is more applicable to 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



183 



Sparge fimo pingui, et multa memor occule 

terra : 
Aut lapidem bibulum, aut squalentes infode 

conchas. 
Inter enim labentur aquae, tenuisque subibit 
Halitus: atque animos tollent sata. Jamque 

reperti, 350 

Qui saxo super, atque ingenti pondere testae 
Urgerent : hoc efFusos munimen ad imbres : 
Hoc, ubi hiulca siti findit canis asstifer arva. 
Seminibus positis, superest deducere terram 



be careful to spread fat dung, 
and to cover them with a 
good deal of earth; or bury 
spongy stones or rough shelFB 
about their roots. By this 
means the water will foak 
tliroiigh, and a fine vapour 
will penetrate them ; and the 
plants will be vigorous. There 
are some now, who press a 
great weight of stones or pot- 
sherds about thein; this is a 
defence against pouring show- 
ers, this when the burning 
dog star cleaves the gaping 
fields with thirst. When the 
layers are planted out, it re- 
mains to draw up the earth 



layers, than to any other way of 
planting*: because in this case a 
branch is laid down into a trench, 
and covered over with earth. 

347. Sparge Jimo pingui, ^c] M^e 
are informed by Columella that the 
direction about burying stones and 
shells is taken from Mago the Car- 
thaginian, who also advises dung- 
ing, but adds, that grape-stones 
ought to be mixed with the dung. 
" Id enim vitare facile est, per 
" imum solum juxta di versa latera 
** fossariim dispositis paucis lapidi- 
^' bus, qui singuli non excedant 
" quinque librale pondus. Hi vi- 
•' dentur, ut Mago prodit, et aquas 
*' hyemis, et vapores aestatis pro- 
" pulsare radicibus : quem secutus 
" Virgilius tutari semina, et muniri 
'* sic praecipit : 

" Aut lapidem bibulum, aut squallentes 
" infode conchas : 

" et paulo post : 

" ■ Jamque reperti, 

" Qui saxo super, atque ingenti pondere 

" testae 
" Urgerent : hoc effuses munimen ad im- 

" bres 
" Hoc ubi hiulci siti findit canis sestifer 

" arva. 

" Idemque Poenus autor probat vi- 
** nacea permista stercori depositis 



'^ seminibus in scrobem vires rao- 
" vere, quod ilia provocent, et 
** eliciant novas radiculas: hoc per 
'' hyemem frigentem, et humidam 
'^ scrobibus inferre calorem tem- 
" pestivum, ac per aestatem viren- 
'' tibus alimentum, et humorem 
" praebere. Si vero solum, cui 
" vitis committitur, videtur exile, 
" longius accersitam pinguem hu- 
" mum scrobibus inferre censet." 
Mr. Evelyn after mentioning the 
placing of potsherds, flints, or peb- 
bles, near the root of the stem, adds 
this caution: *' But remember you 
" remove them after a competent 
" time, else the vermin snails and 
*' insects, which they produce and 
" shelter, will gnaw, and greatly 
'' injure their bark ; and therefore 
" to lay a coat of moist rotten litter 
" with a little earth upon it, will 
" preserve it moist in summer, and 
'^ warm in winter, enriching the 
*' showers and dews that strain 
*' through it." 

352. Munimen.~\ In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is miinimine. 

353. Hoc.'] In the same manu- 
script it is atque instead of hoc. 

354. Seminibus positis.] In this 
passage the Poet mentions digging 
the ground, propping the vines, 
and pruning them. 



184 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



often about the roots, and to 
exercise the hard drags; or 
to turn up the soil with urg- 
ing the plough, and to bend 
the striving bullocks amongst 
the very vineyards; then t« 
prepare smooth reeds and 
spears of peeled rods, and 
ashen poles; and two-horned 
forks; bj' the strength of 
which your vines may learn 
to rise, and contemn the 
winds, and climb np the 
stages to the tops of the elms. 
Wiiilst your plants are in their 
infant state, with young 
branches, you should spare 
their tender age; and whilst 
the joyful branch spreads it- 
self in the open air with 
slackened reins. 



Saepius ad capita, et duros jactare bidentes ; 355 
Aut presso exercere solum sub vomere, et ipsa 
Flectere luctantes inter vineta juvencos. 
Turn laeves calamos, et rasae hastilia virgae, 
Fraxineasque aptare sudes, furcasque bicornes : 
Viribus eniti quarum, et contemnere ventos 360 
Assuescant, summasque sequi tabulataperulmos. 
Ac dum prima novis adolescit frondibus aetas, 
Parcendum teneris ; et dum se laetus ad auras 
Palmes agit, laxis per purura immissus habenis, 



355. Capita.'] It is generally 
agreed that capita means here the 

root of the tree. Mr. B seems 

to take it for the top : 

High as your i)lant oft raise the neigh- 
b'ring soil. 

■ Bidentes.] The bidens seems to 
be that instrument with two hooked 
iron teeth, which our farmers call 
a drag. It is used to break the 
surface of the ground, and may be 
serviceable near the roots of the 
vines, where the plough coming 
too near would be apt to injure 
them. 

S59. Fraxineasque.'] The conjunc- 
tion que is wanting in the King's 
manuscript. 

Bicornes.] Pierius says it is fur- 
casque valentes in the Roman manu- 
script. We find the same reading 
in the Cambridge, and in one of 
the Arundelian manuscripts. 

36l. Tabulata.] The tabula taa.Te 
the branches of elms extended at 
proper distances, to sustain the 
vines 3 as we find in Columella : 
" Cum deinde adolescere incipient, 
'* fake formandse, et tabulata in- 
*' stituendasunt: hoc enim nomine 
'' usurpant agricolae ramos truncos- 
*' que prominentes, eosque vel pro- 
" plus ferro compcscunt, vel lon- 



" gius promittunt, ut vites laxius 
" diffundantur : hoc in solo pingui, 
" melius illud in gracili : tabulata 
" inter se minus ternis pedibus 
'' absint, atque ita formentur, ne 
'* superior ramus in eadem linea 
'' sit, qua inferior: nam demissum 
'' ex eo palmitem germinantem in- 
" ferior atteret^ et fructum de- 
" cutiet." 

363. Parcendum teneris : et dum se 
Icetus ad auras.] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is parcendum 
est teneris ; et dum se Icetus ad auras. 
In the other it is parcendum est tene- 
ris : dum sese Icetus ad auras. 

364. Jgii.] It is aget in the 
Medicean manuscript, according to 
Pierius. 

Laxis.] It is lapsis in the King's 
manuscript. 

Per purum immissus habenis.] This 
is a metaphor taken from horses. 
'' This expression," says Dr. Trapp, 
*' with submission to Virgil, is a 
'^ little harsh, as applied to the 
" growth of a tree :" but the same 
metaphor had been used before by 
Lucretius : 

Arboribus datum 'st variis exinde per 

auras 
Crescendi magnum immissis certamen 

habenis. 

Per purum in Virgil signifies the 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



185 



Ipsa acies nondum falcis tentanda, sed uncis 365 
Carpendae manibus frondes, interque legendae. 
Inde ubi jam validis amplexae stirpibus ulmos 
Exierint, turn stringe comas, tum brachia tonde. 
Ante reformidant ferrum : tum denique dura 
Exerce imperia, et ramos compesce fluentes. 370 
Texendae sepes etiam, et pecus omne tenendum : 



the edge of the pruning knife 
is not yet to be applied; 
bnt the young shoots should 
be nipped with your fingers 
here and there. But when 
they have given the elm a 
strong embrace, then strip 
the shoots; then prune the 
boughs. Before this they 
cannot bear the knife; but 
now exercise a severe domi- 
nion over them, and re- 
strain the luxuriant branches. 
Hedges also are to be woven, 
and all sorts of cattle to be 
restrained ; 



same as per auras in Lucretius. 
Horace uses it also for the air: 

Per purum tonantes 

Egit equos. 

365. Ipsa acies nondum falcis ten- 
tanda."] Fierius reads ipsa acie falcis 
nondum tentanda. I find the same 
reading in one of the Arundelian 
manuscripts, both Dr. Mead's, and 
in several printed editions. He says 
it is ipsa acie nondum falcis in the 
Roman manuscript, and so it is in 
the other Arundelian copy, and some 
printed editions. The King's, the 
Cambridge, and the Bodleian manu- 
scripts, Servius, Heinsius, Ruaeus, 
Masvicius, and several others, have 
ipsa acies nondum falcis tentanda. 
Quintilian alludes to this passage, in 
the second book of his Institutions: 
'' Ne illud quidem quod admonea- 
" mus indignum est, ingenia puero- 
" rum nimia interim emendatlonis 
" severitate deficere: nam et despe- 
*' rant, et dolent, et novissime ode- 
*'runt: et quod maxime nocet, 
** dum omnia timent, nihil conan- 
*' tur. Quod etiam rusticis notum 
** est, qui frond i bus teneris non 
*' putant adhibendum esse falcem, 
" quia reformidare ferrum videntur, 
'' et cicatricem nondum pati posse." 

Uncis carpendce manibus frondes.] 
By uncis manibus, crooked hands, the 
Poet means nipping the tender 
shoots with the thumb and finger, 
which is practised in summertime, 
before the shoots are grown woody 
and hard. 



367. Stirpibus.] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is viribus, 
which reading Fulvius Ursinus ob- 
served also in the old Colotian 
manuscript. 

370. Ramos compesce Jluentes.J^ 
Pierius says it is ramos compesce va- 
lentes in the most ancient Roman 
manuscript; and thinks both the 
precept and expression are taken 
from the following passage of 
Varro : " Vites pampinari, sed a 
" sciente : nam id, quam putare 
" majus; neque in arbusto, sed in 
*' vinea fieri. Pampinare est ex 
" sarmento coles, qui nati sunt, de 
" iis, qui plurimum valent, pri- 
** mum ac secundum, nonnunquam 
" etiam tertium relinquere, reliquos 
" decerpere, ne relictis colibus sar- 
^' mentum nequeat ministrare suc- 
'' cum." 

371- Texendce sepes, Sj-c] Here 
the Poet speaks of making hedges, 
to keep out cattle, and especially 
goats, whence he takes occasion 
to digress into an account of the 
sacrifices to Bacchus. 

In one of the Arundelian manu- 
scripts it is et jam pecus omne timen- 
dum. In the Bodleian it is etiam 
et pecus omne tuendum. Pierius says 
it is tuendum in the Roman manu- 
script. Ruaeus and most of the 
editors have est after tenendum. 
Pierius says est is wanting in the 
Medicean copy. It is left out in all 
the manuscripts I have collated, and 
by Heinsius, La Cerda, Masvicius^ 
and several others. 
2 B 



186 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



afe^ou^iandL'ita'bfetot'ir Praecipue dum frons tenera, imprudensque 

injuries : for more than cruel , , 
winters, and powerful suns, laborUHl I 
do the wild buffalos, and per- 
secuting goats insult Cui, super indignas hyemes solemque potentem, 

Sylvestres uri assidue capreaeque sequaces 374 



This expression of weaving a 
hedge does not seem to mean a 
green hedge, but a fence made of 
stakes, interwoven with dry sticks. 

373. Super indignas hyemesJ] 
Grimoaldus and Ruaeus interpret 
super, prceter : in this sense Dr. 
Trapp has translated it : 



Besides storms. 



And the sun's heat, the buffalos and 

goats. 
And sheep, and greedy heifers, hurt thy 

vines. 

La Cerda interprets it, that cattle 
do more harm to the vineyards, 
than heat and cold : " Etiamsi 
" hyemes indignae, id est magnae, 
*' noceant novellis vitibus, et sol, 
'' cam potens est, id est, cum est 
" aestivus : tamen magis nocumen- 
" tum accipiunt ab uris, ovibus, 
*' capreis, juvencis." In this sense 
it is translated by May, 

Wild bulls and greedy goats more harm 
will do 

Than scorching summers, and cold win- 
ters too : 

And by Dryden : 

Whose leaves are not alone foul winter's 
prey, 

But oft by summer s suns are scorch'd 
away; 

And tcorse tluin both, become th* unwor- 
thy browse 

Of buffalos, salt goats, and hungry cows. 

" I understand," says Mr. B- 



super in this place, as it is said 

super ccenam, or else it seems to 

" me that there would be a disa- 

'' greeable repetition of the same 

" things in the following lines : 

•• Frigora nee lantmn, &c." 



Accordingly he translates it. 

In parching summer, and in winter"! 

snows, j 

Wild beasts and wanton goats insult I 

the boughs, f 

And sheep and hungry heifers feed | 

the luscious browse. J 

But La Cerda has already vindi- 
cated this passage from the impu- 
tation of tautology. See the note 
on ver. 376. 

Indignas is generally thought to 
signify only great, in which sense 
it seems to have been used in the 
tenth Eclogue : 

— — Indigno cum Gallus amore periret. 

374. Sylvestris uri.'] The urus, 
as described by Julius Caesar, is a 
wild bull of prodigious strength 
and swiftness, being almost as big 
as an elephant : " Tertium est 
*' genus eorum, qui Uri appellan- 
'^ tur. li sunt magnitudine pauUo 
''infra elephantosj specie, et co- 
" lore, et figura tauri. Magna vis 
*' est eorum, et magna velocitas. 
*' Neque homini, neque ferae, quara 
'* conspexerint, parcunt." He 
speaks of it, as one of the rare 
animals which are found in the 
Hercynian wood, and are not seen 
in other places : " Hujus Hercy- 
" niae Sylvae, quae supra demon- 
" strata est, latitudo ix dierum iter 
" expedito patet. Non enim aliter 
" finiri potest, neque mensuras iti- 
'' nerum noverunt. Oritur ab Hel- 
'* vetiorum, et Nemetum, et Rau- 
" racorum finibus, rectaquefluminis 
" Danubii regione pertinet ad fines 
" Dacorum, et Anartium. Hinc 
" se flectit sinistrorsus, diversis a 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



187 



Illudunt : pascuntur oves : avidaeque juvencae. 



them; and sheep ami greedy 
heifers browse upon them. 



" fluraine regionibus, multarumque 
*' gentium fines propter iriagnitudi- 
*' nem attingit. Neque quisquam 
**^ est hujus Germaniae, qui se atiisse 
" ad initium ejus sylvae dicat, quum 
" dierum iter lx processerit_, aut 
*' quo ex loco oriatur, acceperit. 
" Multa in ea genera ferarum nasci 
*' constat, quae reliquis in locis visa 
*' non sint: ex quibiis qusejnaxime 
'' difFerant ab caeteris, et nmemoria 
" prodenda videantur, haec sunt." 
After these words Caesar describes 
a bull shaped like a stag, the elk, 
and the urus, as in the former quo- 
tation. Servius thinks the uri are 
so called utfo rm o^av, from moun- 
tains : but it is more probable that 
the Romans only Latinised the Ger- 
man name Aurochs or Urochs, for 
the ancient Germans called any 
thing wild, vast, or strong, ur ; 
and ochsj in their language, signifies 
an ox. The uri therefore men- 
tioned by Virgil cannot be the 
urus described by Caesar, which 
was an animal utterly unknown 
in Italy. To solve this difficulty. 
La Cerda would have us read tauri 
instead of uri : but then what shall 
we do with ver. 5S^. of the third 
Georgick ? 

Quaesitas ad sacra boves Junonis et Uris: 

for here ^awm instead of uris cannot 
stand in the verse. The same com- 
mentator proposes another solution, 
to read ursi instead of uri: but 
this is a mere conjecture. Ruaeus 
interprets sylvestres uri " Bubali 
*' quos vulgus cum Uris confundit. 
'' Plin.l. viii. 15." This is not a fair 
interpretation of Pliny's words: 
that author does not say the com- 
mon people call the bubalus, urus ; 
but that they call the urusy bubalus : 
" Paucissima Scythia gignit, inopia 
'' fruticum : pauca contermina illi 



*' Germania: insignia tamen bouni 
" ferorum genera, jubatos, bison tes, 
'' excellentique et vi et velocitate 
" uros, quibus imperitum vulgus 
'' bubalorum nomen imponit, cum id 
" gignat Africa, vitulipotius cervive 
" quadam similitudine." The Bu- 
balus of Pliny seems to be that 
which Bellonius describes under the 
name of Bos Africanus, which he 
says is less than a stag, of a square 
make, with reddish shining hair^ 
and horns bending towards each 
other, in form of a half moon. It 
is therefore very diiFerent from the 
Buffalo, which is common in Italy, 
of the milk of which they make 
those fine cheeses, which they call 
casei di cavallo ; it is larger than 
the common kine, has a thicker 
body, a very hard skin, and thick, 
bending black horns. I do not find 
that this animal was distinguished 
anciently by any particular name: 
and therefore Virgil might probably 
borrow the name of Urus, which 
was known to signify the wild 
bull of the Hercynian forest. La 
Cerda quotes a passage of S. Isi- 
dore, to shew that the Bubalus was 
common in Italy in his time, which 
was very ancient. The words of 
S. Isidore are : " Boas anguis Italiae 
" immensa mole : persequitur gre- 
" ges armentorum et bubalos : et 
*' plurimo lacte irriguis uberibus 
'' se innectit, et surgens interimit, 
" atque inde a bourn populatione 
" boas nomen accepit." It is easy 
to see that S. Isidore took what he 
says, in this quotation, from the 
following passage of Pliny: " Fh- 
" ciunt his fidem in Italia appellatae 
" boae : in tantam amplitudinem ex- 
"^ euntes, ut, Divo Claudio prin- 
" cipe, occisae in Vaticano solidus 
'^ in alvo aspectatus sit in fans. 
'' Aluntur primo bubuli lactis succo, 
2 B 2 



188 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Nor do the colds stiflF wiih 
hoary frost, nor the burning 
heats beating upon the scorch- 
ing rocks hnrt them so much 
as those animals, and the poi- 
son of their cruel teeth, and 
the scar inflicted on the bitten 
stem. For this crime alone is 
the goat sacrificed on all the 
altars of Bacchus, 



Frigora nee tantum cana concreta pruina, 376 
Aut gravis incumbens scopulis arentibus aestas, 
Quantum illi nocuere greges, durique venenuni 
Dentis, et admorso signata in stirpe cicatrix. 
Non aliam ob culpam Baccho caper omnibus 
aris 380 



** unde nomen traxere." It is 
highly probable, that the good bi- 
shop read hubali in Pliny, instead 
of the adjective bubuli: and there- 
fore we can not infer that the Buffalo 
was anciently called Bubalus. 

CaprecBque sequaces.'] It is capros 
in the Cambridge, the Bodleian, 
both the Arundelian, and both Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts. 

Servius renders sequaces, persecu- 
trices. It signifies pursuing with 
desire ; thus, in the second Eclogue : 

riorentem' cytisum sequitur lasciva ca- 

pella, 
Te Corydon o Alexi : trahit sua quemque 

voluptas. 

376. Frigora nee tantum, &c.] 
" He now explains more fully what 
" he had said before, and shews 
** what are those cruel winters, 
*' what the powerful suns, what the 
*' injury of beasts. As if he should 
*' say, I said that the cattle did 
*' more harm to vineyards than 
" cruel winters, or scorching suns : 
" for neither the colds stiff with 
*^ hoary frost (here is the cruelty of 
*' winter), nor the burning heats 
" beating upon the scorching rocks 
'' (here is the powerful sun), do so 
'^ much harm as those cattle : for 
'' their bite is full of poison, and 
" may be called a scar, or ulcer, 
*' rather than a bite." La Cerda. 

377. Gravis incumbens scopulis 
arentibus cestas.'] In the Cambridge 
manuscript it is ardent ibus instead 
of arentibus. In the King's, and 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts it 



is (Esius instead of cestas. See the 
note on book i. ver. S12. and book 
ii. ver. 322. 

Servius interprets incumbens sco- 
pulis, Etiam saxa caloribus penetrans, 
in which sense he is followed by 
Ruaeus and May : 

And parching suns, that burn the hard- 
est rocks : 

And Dryden : 

Nor dog-days' parching heat, that splits 
the rocks : 

And Mr. B : 

Not raging heats that pierce through 
thirsty rocks ; 

And Dr. Trapp : 

Nor summer, when it drys and burns 
the rocks. 

But what harm is it to the vineyards 
if the rocks are split or burnt with 
heat? I take the poet's meaning to 
be, that vineyards planted on a 
rocky soil, which therefore suffer 
most in dry weather, are not so 
much injured by the most scorching 
heat, as by the biting of cattle. 
The poet mentions vineyards being 
planted in rocks, in ver. 520. 



Et alte 



Mitis in apricis coquitur vindemia saxis. 

380. Non aliam ob culpam Baccho 
caper omnibus aris coeditur.'] In one 
of the Arundelian manuscripts we 
have causam instead of culpamy but 
culpam is more poetical. 

This seems to be taken from 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



189 



Caeditur, et veteres ineunt proscenia ludi : 
Praemiaque ingeniis pagos et compita circum 



and the ancient plays come 
upon the stage: and the 
Athenians proposed rewards 
for wit about the villages and 
cross-ways ; 



Varro, who tells us, that the bite 
of goats poisons the vines and 
olives, for which reason goats are 
sacrificed to Bacchus, by way of 
punishment for their crime: *' Quae- 
** dam enim pecudes culturse sunt 
" inimicae, ac veneno, ut istae, quas 
" dixisti, caprce. Eae enim omnia 
'' novella sata carpendo corrum- 
" punt, non minimum vites, atque 
" oleas. Itaque propterea institu- 
" tum diversa de causa, ut ex ca- 
" prino genere ad alii dei aram 
'^ hostia adduceretur, ad alii non 
" sacrificaretur, cum ab eodem odio 
" alter videre noUet, alter etiam 
*' videre pereuntem vellet. Sic 
" factum, ut Libera patri repertori 
'' vitis hirci immolareniur , proinde 
" ut capite darent pcenas. Contra ut 
'' Minervae caprini generis nihil im- 
" molarent, propter oleam, quod 
'^ earn, quam laeserit, fieri dicunt 
*' sterilem. Ejus enim salivam esse 
'' fructui venenum." 

381. Proscenia.] " The ancient 
'^ theatre was a semicircular build- 
'' ing, appropriated to the acting of 
*' plays, the name being derived 
*' from ^dofcxi, to behold. It was 
" divided into the following parts, 
" 1. The Porticus, scales, sedilia : 
*' the rows of sedilia y or seats, were 
" called cunei, because they were 
" formed like wedges, growing nar- 
" rower, as they came nearer the 
*' centre of the theatre, and these 
'' were all disposed about the cir- 
" cumference of the theatre. 2. The 
" orchestra^ so called from o^^ita-^xi, 
*' to dance : it was the inner part, or 
'^ centre of the theatre, and the 
" lowest of all, and hollow, whence 
*' the whole open space of the 
" theatre was called cavea. Here 
'' sat the senators, and here were 



" the dancers and music. 3. The 
" proscenium^ which was a place 
" drawn from one horn of the 
** theatre to the other, between the 
** orchestra and the scene, being 
*' higher than the orchestra, and 
" lower than the scene : here the 
'^ comic and tragic actors spoke and 
^' acted upon an elevated place 
" which was called the pulpitum, or 
" stage. 4. The scene was the op- 
" posite part to the audience j 
" decorated with pictures and co- 
'* lumns, and originally with trees, 
" to shade the actors, when they 
" performed in the open air : so 
" called from erxusij, a shade. 5. The 
" poscenium, or part behind the 
'' scenes." Ru^us. 

.S82. Ingeniis.'] It is usually 
printed ingentesy which seems to be 
an useless epithet in this place. 
Ruaeus refers it to Theseidae, making 
the sense to be, *' the great Athe- 
" nians instituted rewards about the 
" villages and cross-ways," Servius, 
Grimoaldus, and La Cerda take no 
notice at all of ingentes. Mr. B — 
joins it with pagos, and translates 
them crowded villages. Dr. Trapp 
in his note says, *' sure it belongs 
*' to pagos" but he seems to omit 
it in his translation : *' And all the 
" roads and villages around." 

I have put ingeniis instead of ingen- 
tes on the authority of Pierius, who 
says it is ingeniis in all the most 
ancient manuscripts, which he had 
seen. The poet here alludes to the 
ancient custom amongst the Greeks 
of proposing a goat for a prize to 
him, who should be judged to excel 
in satirical verse. Thus Horace : 



Carmine qui tragico vilem certavit ob 
hircum. 



190 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and rejoicing in their cups 
danced upon the greasy skins 
in the soft meadows. The 
Ausonian husbandmen also, 
who derive their original from 
Troy, jest in uncouth verses, 
and with unbounded laugh- 
ter; and put on horrid masks 
made of barks of trees : and 
invoke thee, O Bacclius, in 
joyful strains, and hang up 
little soft images to thee on 
a lofty pine. 



Theseidae posuere, atque inter pocula laeti 
Mollibus in pratis unctos saluere per utres. 
Nee non Ausonii, Troja gens missa, coloni 385 
Versibus incomptis ludunt, risuque soluto; 
Oraque corticibus suraunt horrenda cavatis: 
Et te, Bacche, vocant per carmina laeta, tibique 
Oscilla ex alta suspend unt moUia pinu. 



Hence this sort of poetry came to 
obtain the name of tragedy from 
r^oiyog, a goat, and co^-a, a song. 
There is a line in Horace not much 
unlike this of Virgil : it is in his 
first epistle : 

Quis circum pagos, et circum compita 
victor. 

PagosJ] Pagus seems to be de- 
rived from 2r«y»j, a well; because 
where they found a well, they be- 
gan to make their habitations. 

383. TkeseidcB.'] Tragedy had its 
beginning among the Athenians. 
Thespis, an Athenian Poet, who 
was contemporary with Solon, im- 
proved it, and is commonly said to 
have invented it : though it was 
very rude even in his time, as we 
find in Horace : 

Ignotum Tragicae genus invenisse Ca- 

moenae 
Dicitur, et plaustris vexisse poemata 

Thespis, 
Quae caneretit agerentque peruncti fasci- 

bus ora. 

When Thespis Jirst exposed the Tragic 

muse, 
Rude were the actors^ and a cart the scene. 
Where ghastly faces stained with lees of 

wine 
Frighted the children, and amused the 

crowd. 

Lord Roscommon. 

It is even now a custom in Italy, 
for the country people, as they 
are carrying the grapes home, to 
tread them in the cart, and, with 
faces all besmeared, to throw out 



uncouth jests at those who pass by. 
This seems to bear a great resem- 
blance to the original of tragedy, as 
mentioned by Horace. Theseus was 
king of Athens, and first brought 
them out of the fields to live in 
walled towns. Hence they are 
called TheseidcE by Virgil. 

S84. Unctos saluere per utres.^ 
The utres were bags made of goats' 
skins, into which they put their 
wine, as is now practised in the 
Levant. These skins were blown 
up like bladders, and besmeared 
with oil. They were set in the 
fields, and it was the custom to 
dance upon them with one leg, at 
the feasts of Bacchus. The skins 
being very slippery, the dancers 
often fell down, which occasioned a 
great laughter. 

3S5. Ausonii Troja.'] In the 
King's manuscript it is Ausonii et 
Troja. 

388. Focant.] La Cerda reads^ 
^caiiunt. 

389. Oscilla.'] The learned are 
divided about the meaning of the 
word oscilla in this place. Some 
have recourse to the following fable. 
Bacchus had taught Icarius, an 
Athenian shepherd, the use of wine, 
which he communicated to his 
neighbours. The country people, 
being exceedingly delighted with 
this noble liquor, drank of it to 
excess, and finding themselves dis- 
ordered, thought they had been 
poisoned by Icarius, and killed him. 
His dog returning home to Erigone, 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



191 



Hinc omnis largo pubescit vinea foetu : 390 

Complentur vallesque cavae, saltusque profundi, 
Et quocLinque deus circum caput egit honestum. 
Ergo rite suum Baccho dicemus honorem 
Carminibus patriis, lancesque et liba feremus ; 
Et ductus cornu stabit sacer hircus ad aram, 395 
ringuiaque in verubus torrebimus exta colurnis. 



Hence every vineyard swells 
with a large produce; and 
the hollow valleys, and shady 
groves are filled, wheresoever 
the god shews his gracious 
coniuenance. Therefore we 
will honour Bacchus with our 
country verses according to 
custom, and otter chargers 
and holy cakes ; and the sa- 
cred goat shall be led by the 
horns anil stand at his altar, 
and we will roast the fat en- 
trails on hazel spits. 



the daughter of Icarius, conducted 
her to the dead body of his master, 
on the sight of which she hanged 
herself. Soon after the Athenians 
were visited with a great pestilence, 
and their young women running 
mad hanged themselves. On con- 
sulting the Oracle they were told, 
that they must appease the manes 
ofErigone. This they performed, 
by tying ropes to the branches of 
trees and swinging on them, as if 
they were hanged : and afterwards, 
many falling down and hurting 
themselves, they hung up little 
images instead of themselves. May 
thinks it alludes to these images : 

And virgin's statues on the lofty pine 
Did hang. 

Mr. B understands it of the 

swinging : 

They ride on swings suspended in the 
wind. 

And indeed there are not wanting 
some commentators, who tell us, it 
was the custom, at the feasts of 
Bacchus, to swing on ropes, and 
play at see-saw like our children. 
Others say the oscilla were bunches 
of flowers in the form of phalli; 
of this opinion is Grimoaldus : " Et 
*' ad risus excitandos imagunculas 
" appensas arboribus, instar mem- 
*' brorum virilium ore lingerent." 
Ruaeus says they were little earthen 
images of Bacchus, which were 
thought to bestow fertility which 
way soever their faces turned, as 



they were blown about by the 
wind. In this he is followed by 
Dryden : 

In jolly hymns they praise the god of 

wine. 
Whose earthen images adorn the pine : 

And by Dr. Trapp : 

And hang thy little images aloft 
On a tall pine. 

393. Suum honorem.] Pierius says 
it is suos honores in some ancient 
manuscripts, which seems a more 
grand expression. 

394. Liba.l The libum was a sort 
of holy cake, made of flour, honey, 
and oil, or, according to sorjie, of 
sesasum, milk, and honey. 

395. Ductus comuJ] The victims 
were led with a slack rope to the 
altar: for if they were reluctant it 
was thought an ill omen. Dryden 
therefore is mistaken when he trans- 
lates this passage, 

And a guilty goat 

Dragg'd by the horns be to his altars 
brought. 

And Mr. B : 



And a hallow'd goat 

Dragged by the horns be to his altar 
brought. 

And Dr. Trapp : 

And at his altar kill the victim goat, 
Drag^d by the horns. 

396. Verubus colurnis.'} See the 
note on ver. 299' 



192 



r. VIRGILII MARONIS 



There is yet another labour 
which belongs to vines, of 
which there is no end: for 
the whole ground is to be 
ploughed three or four times 
every year, and the clods are 
continually to be broken with 
bended drags: all tiie grove 
is to be lightened of its leaves. 
The labour of husbandmen 
comes round again, and the 
year rolls round in the same 
steps. And when the vine- 
yard shall have lost its latest 
leaves, and the cold north 
wind shall have deprived the 
woods of their glory, even 
then the diligent countryman 
extends his care to the fol- 
lowing year, 



Est etiam ille labor curandis vitibus alter, 

Cui nunquam exhausti satis est : namque omne 

quotannis 
Terque quaterque solum scindendum, glebaque 

versis 
internum frangenda bidentibus: omne levandum 
Fronde nemus. Redit agricolis labor actus in 

orbem, 401 

Atque in se sua per vestigia volvitur annus. 
Ac jam olim seras posuit cum vinea frondes, 
Frigidus et sylvis Aquilo decussit honorem ; 
Jam turn acer curas venientem extendit in annum 



397. Est etiam, &c.] He now re- 
turns to the vineyards, and shews 
what labour farther attends the cul- 
ture of them, in frequent digging, 
dressing, and pruning. 

399. Versis bidentibus.'] I have 
shewn what instrument the bidens 
is, in the note on ver. 355. I take 
the epithet versis in this place to 
signify bent; for the drag is like a 
long-tined pitchfork, with the tines 
bent downwards, almost vrith right 
angles. 

400. Omne levandum fronde ne- 
mus.^ It is usual to thin the leaves, 
to give the sun a greater power to 
ripen the fruit. 

402. Inse sua per vestigia volvitur 
annus."] Antius is said by some to 
be derived from annulus, a ring: 
though the contrary seems more 
probable. The hieroglyphical re- 
presentation of the year is a serpent 
rolled in a circle with his tail in 
his mouth. 

403. Et:] In one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts it is at : in the King's 
and in some printed editions it is ac. 

Seras posuit cum vinea frondes.] 
Columella says the vineyard should 
begin to be pruned about the begin- 
ning of our October, if the weather 



be fair and mild, and the equinoc- 
tial rains have preceded, and the 
shoots have acquired a just degree 
of ripeness : for a dry season re- 
quires the pruning to be later: 
" Placet ergo, si mitis, ac tempe- 
'^ rata permittit in ea regione, quam 
" colimus, caeli dementia, facta vin- 
'^ demia, secundum idus Octobris, 
'^ auspicari putationera, cum tamen 
" equinoctiales pluvise praecesserint, 
" et sarmenta justam maturitatem 
*' ceperint, nam siccitas seriorem 
" putationem facit." 

404. Frigidus et sylvis Aquilo de- 
cussit honorem.] *' This entire line 
'^ is taken from Varro Atacinus." 
FuLV. Ursin. 

405. Curas venientem extendit in 
annum] This autumnal pruning is 
really providing for the next year. 
Thus Columella : " Quandocunque 
" igitur vinitor hoc opus obibit, tria 
" praecipue custodiat. Primum ut 
*' quam maxime fructui consulat : 
'* deinde, ut in annum sequentem 
" quam laetissimas jam hinc eligat 
" materias: tum etiam ut quam lon- 
*' gissimam perennitatem stirpi ac- 
" quirat. Nam quicquid ex his 
** omittitur, magnum affert domino 
'' dispendium." 



GEORG. LIB. 11. 



193 



Rusticus, et curvo Saturni dente relictam 
Persequitur vitem attondens, fingitque putando. 
Primus humum fodito, primus devecta cremate 
Sarmenta, et vallos primus sub tecta referto: 409 
Postremus metito. Bis vitibus ingruit umbra : 
Bis segetem densis obducunt sentibus herbae : 
Durus uterque labor. Laudato ingentia rura : 



and persecutes the naked vine 
with Saturn's hook, and forms 
it by pruning. Be the first to 
dig the QTOund, be the first 
to burn the shoots which you 
have cut off, and be the first 
to carry the stakes home; 
be the last to gatlier. Twice 
doesshadeovergrow the vines. 
Twice do weeds and bushes 
over-run the ground: both 
these require great labour. 
Commend a large farm, 



406. Rusticus. ~\ Plerius says it is 
agricola in the Roman manuscript. 

Curvo Saturni dente.'] Saturn is 
represented with a sickle in his 
hand. The ancient pruning knife 
seems to have been larger than 
Avhat we use, and perhaps was the 
very same instrument with that 
which they used in reaping. Both 
are called /aZ*-. 

Relictam vitem.'^ I have trans- 
lated it the naked vine; that part 
which is left, when ail the fruit is 
gathered, and the leaves are fallen 
off. Servius interprets it that which 
the husbandman had left a little be- 
fore: '* scilicet a se paulo ante de- 
*' sertam." In this sense Mr. B — 
has translated it: 



He 



seeks the vine which he had just 
forsook. 



Ruaeus interprets it nudatam vitem, 
in which he is followed by Dryden : 

Ev'n then the naked vine he persecutes. 

Dr. Trapp has not translated relic- 
tam : but in his note he says " re- 
'* lictams i' e. aliquandiu neglectam. 
" Ruaeus renders it by nudatam ; 
" which is very strange." 

407. Persequitur vitem attondens, 
Jingitque putaudo.'] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is prosequitur 
instead of persequitur. 

Grimoaldus, La Cerda, Ruaeus, 
and some others, understand this 
verse not to mean only pruning, but 
to consist of two parts. They inter- 



pret vitem attondens to mean the 
cutting off the roots which grow 
near the surface of the ground, or 
day roots, which the Romans called 
ahlaqueatio. Columella speaks of 
this at large, in lib. iv. c. 8. Dr. 
Trapp translates it lops. 

410. Metito.'] Messis and meto 
are used for the gathering in of any 
produce -, as well as for harvest and 
reaping. Virgil applies messis, in 
the fourth Georgick, to the taking 
of the honey : duo tempora messis. 

Bis vitibus ingruit umbra.] The 
vines are twice overloaded with 
leaves : therefore they must be 
pruned twice in a year. He means 
the summer dressing, when the 
young shoots are to be nipped with 
the fingers ; and the autumnal 
pruning. 

412. Laudato ingentia rura, exi- 
guum colito.] This is an imitation 
of the following verse of Hesiod : 

NJT okiytiv uivsTv, fiiydX^ V Ivt (po^riet Bi- 

The meaning of the Poet seems to 
be, that you may admire the splen- 
dor of a large vineyard, but that 
you had better cultivate a small 
one : because the labour of culti- 
vating vines is so great, that the 
master cannot extend his care over 
a very large spot of ground. Colu- 
mella relates a story from Graecinus, 
in confirmation of this. A man had 
two daughters, and a large vine- 
yard, of which he gave a third part 
2 c 



194 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



but cultivate a small one. The ExiffULim colito. Nec nou etiaiti Espera rusci 

rough twigs also of butcher s o r 



with the eldest daughter in mar- 
riage : and yet he gathered as much 
fruit as he did before. Afterwards 
he married the younger daughter, 
with another tliird fv)r her portion j 
and still found that his remaining 
third part produced as much as the 
whole had done : which could arise 
from no other cause, than that he 
was able to cultivate a third part 
better than the whole vineyard he- 
fore it was divided. " Idque non 
*' solum ratione, sed etiam exemplo 
'•* nobis idem Grsecinus declarat eo 
'' libro, quem de vineis scripsit, 
" cum refert ex patre suo saepe se 
*' audire solitum Paridium quendam 
'' Veterensem vicinum suum duas 
" filias, et vineis consitum habuisse 
*' fundum, cujus partem tertiam 
*' nubenti majori tiliae dedisse in 
*' dotem, ac nihilo minus eeque mag- 
*' nos fructus ex duabus partibus 
" ejusdem fundi percipere solitum. 
" Minorem deinde filiam nuptui 
"^ collocasse in dimidia parte reliqui 
" agri. Nec sic ex pristino reditu 
*' detraxisse. Quod quid conjicit? 
" nisi melius scilicet postea cultam 
" esse tertiam illam fundi partem, 
•' quam antea universam." The 
same author mentions this precept 
of the poet with great commenda- 
tion, and says it was taken from a 
saying of one of the seven wise 
men, and that it was a proverb of 
the Carthaginians, that ajitld ought 
to be iceaker than the husbandman. 
He adds, that, after the expulsion 
of the kings, seven acres was the 
allowance to each person, from 
which they derived more profit, 
than they did in his time from 
large plantations : " Nos ad ceetera 
" praecepta illud adjicimus, quod 
" sapiens unus de septem in per- 
'*^ petuum posteritati pronuntiavit, 



" fAiT^of oi^tTov, adhibendum modum 
" mensuramque rebus, idque ut non 
" solum aliud acturls, sed et agrum 
'^ paraturis dictum intelligatur, ne 
'^ majorem quam ratio calculorum 
" patiatur, emere velit : nam hue 
" pertinet praeclara nostri poetae 
" sententia : 



Laudato ingentia rura. 



" Exiguum colito. 

'' Quod vir eruditissimus, ut mea 
" fert opinio, traditum vetus prae- 
*' ceptum numerissignavit : quippe 
" acutissimam gentemPoenos dixisse 
" convenit. Imbecilliorem agrum, 
" quam agricolam esse dehere : quo- 
" niam cum sit coUuctandum cum 
** eo, si fundus praevaleat, allidi do- 
'' minum. Nec dubium quin minus 
" reddat laxus ager non recte cul- 
" tU5, quam angustus eximie. Ideo- 
" que post reges exactos Liciniana 
" ilia septena jugera, quae plebis 
'•' tribunus viritim diviserat, majores 
" quaestus antiquis retulere, quam 
" nunc nobis praebent amplissima 
'^ vervacta." 

413, Aspera ruscl vimina.~\ AVe 
learn from Pliny tliat the ruscus is 
the same with the oxymyrsine : 
" Castor oxymyrsineu myrti foliis 
'' acutis, ex qua fiunt ruri scop^, 
" ruscum vocavit." Oxymyrsine 
signifies sharp-pointed myrtle; and 
is therefore the same with the x.if~ 
r^of^vji^ivTi, or prickly myrtle of 
Theophrastus, to which he com- 
pares the Alexandrian laurel, on ac- 
count of the berries growing upon 
the leaves : "l^ix ^l x.x\ rx^z tti^I thv 
"l^jjy Ittiv, oiov T, Tg 'AA«|«»og«/flf x,xXou- 
uiVT/i ^ei^r/i, x.xl <rvx.)i rig y,xl eiuxiXag. 
T?? ^h ovv 2ei^vrig l» Tovra to idiof, on 

ttv^pivrt. xu^oTiext yx^ rot KX^TTOt ly/iv- 
<riv he rtsg ^ciyjag tov (pvXXev. Dios6o- 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



195 



Vimina per sylvani, et ripis fluvialis arundo 
Caeditur, incultique exercet cura salicti. 415 
Jam vinctaevites: jam falcem arbusta reponunt; 
Jam canit extremes effbetus vinitor antes : 
Sollicitanda tamen tellus, pulvisque movendus, 
Et jam riiaturis metuendus Jupiter uvis. 419 
Contra, non ulla est oleis cultura: neque illae 



broom must be cut in the 
woods, and the watery reed on 
the banks, nor must you neg- 
lect the uncultivated willows. 
Now rhe vines are tied, now 
the trees no longer require 
the hook ; now the weary 
dresser sings about the utmost 
rows; yet the earth must be 
turned up, and the dust stir- 
red, and Jupiter is to be feared, 
even when the grapes are 
quite ripe. On the contrary, 
the olives require no culture, 
nor do they 



rides plainly enough describes our 
butchers broom under the name of 
fcv^a-m (xy^i'ec, or wild myrtle. He 
says the leaves are like those of 
myrtle, but broader, pointed like a 
spear, and sharp. The fruit is 
round, growing on the middle of 
the leaf, red when ripe, and having 
a bony kernel. Many stalks rise 
from the same root, a cubit high, 
bending, hard to break, and full of 
leaves. The root is like that of 
dog's grass, of a sour taste and bit- 
terish. It grows in wild and craggy 
places: Mv^e-lvvi ky^iu. to ^it (pvXXcv 

yvXev, sv f^za-a 2i ra zriTciXa •srspi^spt), 
i^v^^ov h Tu -zriTrxtvio-B-M , i^ovret ro hrog 
^Toioig, KXcifvix Xvyoiidyt -ziroXXei Ix. t^g 
p/^*j5 «yT?5 ^VT^^oiVToi ocrov -sni^iag (piiX- 

yive^zva ^^v(pv^v, vTroTTiK^ov .... (pOirui 
h r^x^za-i rcTrctg kxI K^vtfivahcrt. The 
butcher's broom is so called, be- 
cause our butchers make use of it 
to sweep their stalls. It grows in 
woods and bushy places. In Italy 
they frequently make brooms of it. 
I suppose it was used to bind their 
vines in Virgil's time, by its being 
mentioned in this place. 

414. Sylvam.l J^ is sylvas in the 
King's manuscript. 

416. Jam vinctce vites, &c.] He 
concludes this passage with shew- 
ing that the labour of cultivating 
vineyards is perpetual. He has al- 
ready mentioned a frequent digging 



of the ground J the summer and au- 
tumn pruning; and the tying of 
the vines. Now he observes, that 
when all this is performed, and the 
labour might seem to be ended 
with the vintage, yet the ground is 
still to be stirred and broken to 
dust; and that storms are to be 
feared even when the grapes are 
ripe. 

In the King's, and in one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts, it is jundce in- 
stead of vinctce. 

417. Jam canit extremes effcetus 
vinitor antes.'] It is effectos in the 
Bodleian, and effectus in one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts. Pierius says 
it is 

Jam canit effectos extremus vinitor antes 

in the Roman manuscript ; and ca- 
nit effcetus extremos in the Lombard, 
and in the Medicean manuscripts. 

420. Contra, non ulla est, &c.] 
Having shewed the great labour 
which attends the care of a vine- 
yard ; he now opposes the olive to 
it, which requires hardly any cul- 
ture. He says the same of other 
fruit trees, and mentions the wild 
plants, which are produced abun- 
dantly; and thence he infers, that 
if nature affords us so many useful 
plants, we ought not to be back- 
ward in planting, and bestowing 
our own labour. 

In the Bodleian manuscript it is 
720w«wZ/a. Servius mentions this read- 
ing. But it seems to be making 
2 c 2 



196 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



'Strrs';''^«£'''once Procurvam expectant falceni, rastrosque te- 

they have taken root in the ^ ci-l 

tields, and stood the blasts. naces 1 4<Xl 

The earth itself atfords suf- "v.v-c7 , 

SSVwuSe hSked L^^ Cum semel h^serunt arvis, aurasque tulerunt. 
Ipsa satis tellus, cum dente recluditur unco, 



the Poet guilty of a very poor ex- 
pression to say. Vines require a great 
deal of culture; but, on the contrary, 
olives require some. 

Virgil does not say in this pas- 
sage, that olives require no culture 
at all 3 but that they have no occa- 
sion for any, after they have once 
taken to the ground, and grown 
strong. They have no occasion for 
harrows, and pruning hooks j and 
need only a little breaking of the 
ground, and some ploughing. Co- 
lumella does not greatly differ from 
the Poet. He says no tree requires 
so much culture as the vine, or so 
little as the olive. *' Omnis tamen 
*' arboris cultus simplicior, quam 
" vinearum est, longeque ex omni- 
" bus stirpibus minorera impensam 
" desiderat olea, quae prima om- 
** nium arborum est, nam quamvis 
" non continuis annis, sed fere al- 
" tero quoque fructum afferat, exi- 
" mia tamen ejus ratio est, quod 
" levi cultu sustinetur, et cum se 
" non induit, vix uUam impensam 
'* poscit : sed et siquam recipit, 
*' subinde fructus multiplicat: neg- 
*' lecta compluribus annis non ut 
" vinca deficit, eoque ipso tempore 
" aliquid etiam interim patrifami- 
" lias praestat, et cum adhibita cul- 
'* tura est, uno anno emendatur." 

423. Ipsa satis tellus, &c.] These 
two lines have been as variously in- 
terpreted as any passage in Virgil. 
Servius takes satis to mean the 
planted olives 3 vomere to be put for 
per vomerem; and fruges for corn. 
Thus according to him, the sense 
will be this : An olive'i/ard, wheti it 
is ploughed, affords both moisture to 



the planted olives, and yields corn 
also by means of the share. In this 
he is exactly followed by Grimoal- 
dus, except that he interprets dente 
unco a spade, and he paraphrases it 
thus : " Olivetum, si ligone foditur, 
" ad oleas, caeterasque in eo satas 
'" arbores irrigandas aptnm reddi- 
" tur, sin aratro quoque vertatur, 
*' nonolivarium modo, sedfrumen- 
" tarium etiam fieri poterit." May's 
translation is to the same purpose : 

The earth itselfe, when furrow'd by Ihe 
plough, 

Doth food enough on her, and come be- 
stow. 

La Cerda takes dente unco and vo- 
mere to be only two expressions for 
the plough-share : he contends that 
satis in the adverb, and that fruges 
means the fruit of theolives: ''Nam 
'* tellus ipsa quocunque aratro, quo- 
" cunque voraere invertatur (adeo 
'^ non necessarii rastri) praebet hu- 
'* morem, qui satis ad oleas. lUud 
" gravidce fruges sunt ipsissimae 

'' oleae Male enim aliqui per 

"fruges capiunt frumenta. Male 
" etiam per vocem satis accipiunt 
*' sata, cum hie sit adverbium." 
Ruaeus follows Servius as to satis j 
and Grimoaldus as to dente unco; 
but he gives quite a new interpre- 
tation of cum vomere : " Id est sta- 
" tim atque aperitur vomere, sine 
" mora, producit fructus. Exag- 
'' geratio, quae certum et celerem 
" proventum indicat." Dr. Trapp 
approves of this new interpretation : 

The earth itself, when by the biting 

share 
Upturned, sufficient moisture wUl supply ; 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



]97 



Sufficit humorem, et gravidas cum vomcre 

fruges : 
Hoc pinguem et placitam paci nutritor olivam. 
Poma quoque, ut primuin truncos sensere va- 

lentes, 426 

Et vires habuere suas, ad sidera raptim 
Vi propria nituntur, opisque baud indiga nostrae. 
Nee minus interea foetu nemus omne gravescit, 
Sanguineisque inculta rubent aviaria baccis. 430 
Tondentur cytisi ; tasdas sylva alta ministrat. 



ami wcishty fruits when it is 
liirned up with the share. 
Thus do thou nurse the fat 
and peaceful olive. Fruit- 
trees also as soon as they are 
ingrafted on strong trunks, 
and have acquired their pro- 
per strength, quickly shoot up 
to the stars, by their own 
force, an'l stand in no nee(l 
of our help. At the same 
tinie all the forests bend with 
fruit, :ii)d Ihe uncultivated 
liabitations of birds glow with 
re<l berries. The Cytisiis is 
cut, the tall wood affords 
torches, 



And full fruit, with the labour ofthepleugh 
Coeval. 

" For that," says he, " is the mean- 
" ing of cum vomere. Hyperb. al- 
" most, as soon as, &c." As for sa- 
tis, 1 think the sense is much the 
same, whether we take it to be the 
noun or the adverb. Dento unco I 
take to mean the bidens or drag, 
spoken of before, which is used in 
the culture of olives, according to 
Columella, to break and loosen the 
ground, that the sun may not pierce 
through the chinks, and hurt the 
roots : '^ Sed id minime bis anno 
" arari debet, etbidentibus alte cir- 
" cumfodiri. Nam post solstitium 
** cum terra sestibus hiat, curandnm 
*' est, ne per rimas sol ad radices 
" arborum penetret." I do not find 
that it was usual to sow corn 
amongst the olives, but ploughing 
the ground was universally thought 
to increase their product : therefore 
I agree with La Cerda, that fruges 
means the fruits of the olive, and 
not corn. I take the sense of these 
lines to be this ; " If you break the 
" ground with drags, it will keep 
" the sun from drying the roots, 
" and the earth, being loosened, 
*' will let as much moisture soak to 
" them as is sufficient : and if you 
" plough the ground you will have 
" a greater crop of olives." Mr. 



B has translated it in this 

sense : 

The earth herself the plants supplies 

with juice. 
If crooked teeth once make her surface 

loose : 
But floods of oil from swelling berries 

flow, 
If ploughs unlock her richer soil below. 

Dryden has taken no notice of dente 
unco in his translation : 

The soil itself due nourishment supplies; 
Plough but the furrows, and the fruits 
arise. 

425. Hoc.'] Hoc seems to relate 

to vomere, as Mr. B observes : 

it is usually interpreted propter hoc. 

426. Poma.] I take this to belong 
to fruit-trees in general. Colu- 
mella, in his chapter De arboribus 
pomiferis^ speaks of figs, pome- 
granates, apples, pears, mulberries, 
and several other sorts of fruits. 
The poet says they require no care 
but ingrafting j for that is the sense 
of truncos sensere valentes. Ad si- 
dera raptim vi propria nituntur is 
much the same expression as 

Exiit in caelum ramis felicibus arbos. 

429. Nec minus, &c.] Here he 
speaks of wild trees, which grow 
in the woods. 

431. Tondentur cytisi.'] A consi- 
derable number of different plants 



198 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



San^%read their hS/" Pascuiiturque igncs nocturni, 



dunt. 



et lumina fun- 



have been supposed by different 
authors to be the cytisus here spoken 
of: but the Cytisus MaranfhcB is 
generally allowed to be the plant. 
We can gather nothing certain from 
what Virgil has said about it. He 
mentions goats as being very fond 
of it, in the first Eclogue : 

Non me pascente capellae 

Florentera cytisum, et salices carpetis 
amaras : 

And in the second : 

Torva leasna lupum sequitur, lupus ipse 

capeUam : 
Florentem cytisum sequitur lasciva ca- 

pella ; 
Te Corydon, o Alexi: 

which seems to be an imitation of 
the following lines, in the tenth 
Idyllium of Theocritus : 

"A a<| TOv KVTitrov, o Xvxos tolv aJya ^tuxu, 
"A yi^avos Tuoer^ov, lyu o iTi t)v fHfiK- 

The Greek Poet also mentions the 
goats as eating cytisus, in the fifth 
Idyllium : 

Ta/ fuv ifAKi xiriffov ?i x,a) a"ytXef aJyig 

In the ninth Eclogue the cytisus is 
mentioned as increasing milk : 

Sic cytiso pastae distentent ubera vaccae : 

And in the tliird Georgick : 

At cui lactis amor, cytisum, lotosque 

freqiientes 
Ipse manu, salsasque ferat praesepibus 

herbas. 

In the tenth Eclogue it is spoken 
of as grateful to bees : 

Nee lacrymis crudelis amor, iiecgramina 
rivis. 



Nee cytiso saturantur apes, nee fronde 
capellas. 

From these passages we collect, 
that the cytisus was grateful to bees 
and goats, and productive of milk; 
but nothing with regard to the 
description of the plant itself. Let 
us examine now, what Theophras- 
tus has said of it, which is very 
little. In the ninth chapter of the 
first book of his History of Plants, 
he says the wood of the cytisus is 
hard and thick : Liec<pi^ova-t Ti kxi rca(i 
fAv^r^xig .... rcvrai ^g 'in o-x-Xn^in^xi 
icoii TsrvKVOTi^xi, K^xiletg, v^t'vov, ^gwoj, 
KVTtFOv, trvx-etfAtvav, ISsvoy, Xarcv. He 
says the same in the fourth chap- 
ter of the fifth book, and adds, that 
it comes nearest to el)ony : tvkvotxtcc 
jKSr 0V1 ooKii Koit pxpvretrx tcvz^o^ uixt 
3cx{ SteSKOs 6vdi yap ixt rov voxrdg tosi/t 
IttihT, KXf yi f4,iv -srv^ig oA». t?5 ^£ eCsww 
i} finr^x s» Yi Kxi yi rov ^^afAxrog Wi ft&- 
>^xiix. rav J' c<A>ift)v Xurog' ■z3-'jx,rov el -^ 
KXi vt T>j$ ^^vbg fZiir^x, >j» x.x?\.6va-i fAiXeit- fll 
o^vov Kxi £T* fAxXXoi jj Toy KyrtTOV " 
TTX^ofAoix yxg xvTrt doKtl t^ Soba iiixi. 
This hardness, like ehony, agrees 
very well with the Cytisus Maran- 
thcB, when the plant is grown old : 
for the Turks make the handles of 
their sabres of it, anc! the monks 
of Patmos their beads. In the 
twentieth chapter of theJ'ourth book 
he Soys it kills most other plants, 
but that it is itself destroyed by 
the Halinius : XxXtTog Se KXi xoTiFog, 
XTFoXXvci yx^ TTcivB-' ag iiTTUi. ic^v^o- 
Tg^«» ?s rcvrov to xXifZOf, xtcoXXvti yXQ 
Tov xvTKTov. It may destroy other 
plants by drawing away the nou- 
rishment from them. Dioscorides 
says it is a white shrub, like the 
Rhamnus, with branches a cubit 
long or longer, clothed with leaves 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



100 



Et dubitant liomines screre, atque impendere 



curam 



Quid majora sequar.^ salices, humilesque ge- 
nistse, 



And do men hesitate about 
iilanliiii^, and bpst«. wing care! 
vVliy sluinld 1 speak oC greater 
things! willows, and iiiinible 
hroom afford either browse 
lor the cattle, 



like those of fenugreek, or birds- 
foot trefoil, only less, and having a 
larger rib. When they are rubbed 
with the fingers, they snciell like 
rocket, and have a taste like green 
chiches : KvTia-a-c^ ^df^vo? Iv-rt Xivxoi; 

6Vg KCtt fAii^oyU.^' TTiOt OVi TOi, ^vAAflt, 

ofAOisc, T«A<5<, J) XenTco Tpi^vX>\.!i) , fAix-ponpa 
Oi xcii Dci^iv t^ovTec, fAliCfiVcc' iv n T« OlOC- 

This also agrees with the Cytisus 
MaranthcE : for the leaves are tri- 
foliated, and smell very like rocket, 
especially about Naples, and the 
plant is very hoary in its native 
soil. Colunaella speaks only of the 
use of it, as an excellent fodder, 
causing abundance of milk, and 
being useful also to hens and bees. 
Pliny tells us, that Amphilochus 
wrote a whole book about the me- 
dica, and the cytisus: '' Unum de 
'' ea, et cytiso volumen Amphilo- 
'^ chus fecit confuslm." He says it 
is a shrub, and greatly commended 
by Aristomachns, the Athenian, as 
a good fodder : " Frutex est et cy- 
'' tisus, ab Aristomacho Atheniensi 
" miris laudibus praedicatus pabulo 
'' ovium, aridus vero etiam suum." 
Then he enlarges upon the uses of 
it in increasing milk, and says it is 
hoary, and has the appearance of 
a shrubby trefoil, with narrower 
leaves: *' Canus aspectu, breviter- 
" que siquis exprimerc similitudi- 
" nem velit, an£2;ustioris trifolii fru- 
" tex." The Cytisus Maranthce is 
the Cytisus incanus, siliquis falcatis 
of C. Bauhin, and the Medicago 
trifolia,frutescens, incana of Tourne- 
fort. 



May translates cytisi, low shrubs , 
and Dryden, vile shrubs are shorn 
for browse : but the cytisus was so 
far from being accounted a vile 
shrub, that it was in the highest 
esteem amongst the ancients. Mr. 

B paraphrases these two wortls, 

tondentur cytisi : 

The Cytisus, with constant verdure 

crown 'd 
Oft feels the hook, and shoots at ev'ry 

wound. 

Tcudas sylva alta ministrat.'] 
Torches were made of any combus- 
tible wood. Pliny mentions a sort 
of pine or fir, under the name of 
tceda, which was chiefly made use 
of at sacrifices : " Sextum genus est 
'^ taeda proprie dicta: abundantior 
*' succoquam reliqua, parcior liqui- 
" diorque quam picea, flam mis ac 
" lumini sacrorum etiam grata." 

432. Pascunturque ignes noctumi.] 
In one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts 
it is Tascuniur noclurni ignes. 

433. Et dubitant homines serere 
atque impendere curam.'] Fulvius 
Ursinu's says this whole verse is 
wanting in the old Colotian manu- 
script. 

It is euros in some editions. 

434. Quid majora sequar.] Here 
he speaks of the great use of several 
sorts of trees; and concludes with 
giving them the preference to the 
vine. 

Humilesque genistce.'] Mr. B — — 
translates genistce, furze, 2Lni\ says 
he has taken the liberty to para- 
phrase a little upon genislce, sepem- 
que satis et pabula melli svfficiunt, 
because he has seen so much of 
the use of that plant in both these 
respects : 



200 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



or shade for the sheplierrts, 
and hedges for the field?, 
and food for bees. It is de- 
lightful to behold Cytoriis 
waving with box, 



Aut illae pecori frondem, aut pastoribus um- 
bras 435 
Sufficiunt ; sepemque satis, et pabula melli. 
Et JLivat undantem buxo spectare Cytorum, 



The willow, and the furzCy an humble 
plant 

To husbandmen afford no trivial aid ; 

That to the sheep gives food, to shep- 
herds shade : 

This covers with strong lines the wealthy 
fields, 

And early fother to the bee-fold yields. 

It is certain that furze is frequently 
used as a fence, and the flowers 
are sought after by the bees : but 
it is no less certain that the furze 
was never called genista by any 
ancient Latin writer. See the note 
on lenlcsque genistce, ver. 12. 

4S5. Aut nice.] Servius says 
many read et tilice. 

Umbras^ So I read with Hein- 
sius. Pierius says it is umbras in 
all the ancient manuscripts. I find 
it so in all those which I have col- 
lated. La Cerda, Ruaeus, and se- 
veral other editors have iimhram. 

4!37- Undantem buxo Cytorum.'] 
Servius says Cytorus is a mountain 
of Macedonia: but, according to 
Pliny, it belongs to Paphlagonia: 
" Ultra quem gens Paphlagonia, 
*' quam Pyleemeniam aliqui dixe- 
*' runt, inclusam a tergo Galatia. 
'* Oppidum Mastya Milesiorum, 
" deinde Cromna. Quo loco He- 
" netos adjicit Nepos Cornelius, a 
'' quibusin Italia ortos cognomines 
'* eorum Venetos credi postulat. 
" Sesamum oppidum, quod nunc 
** Amastris. Mons Cytorus, a Tio 
'* Ixiii. M. pass." Ruaeus says it is 
a city and mountain of Galatia, on 
the borders of Paphlagonia. Strabo 
indeed speaks of a city of that 
name, but he places it in Paphla- 
gonia, and neither he nor Pliny 
mention either a town or moun- 



tain of that name in their accounts 
of Galatia. Cytorus was very fa- 
mous for box. Thus Theophra«tus : 

(pvXhOV OftOiOV 'i^il ^vpp/vft). ^ViTCCi 3' Iv 

To7g "Yvy^poi^ lOTroti koci Tpai^i<ri. xxi yci^ 
7« KvTCo^et TotovToy, ov j5 TrXiifYi yimxi. 

He immediately adds that Olympus 
of Macedonia is cold, for it grows 
there also, though not very large, 
but the largest and fairest trees of 
it are in Cyrene: -^vx^a^ ^io"OXvy.- 
wa$ M.XKidoviKog , koci yup iixctwu. yi~ 
vovTXi. ttX^v ov fiiyoiXoi. f*'iyifoi ^e xai 
Koixxn-oi h KygjjKjj. Perhaps Servius 
read this passage negligently, and 
finding Macedonia mentioned, put 
down Cytorus, as a mountain of 
that country. Pliny says box grows 
in great plenty on the Pyrenean 
hills, and on Cytorus, and on Be- 
recynthus: " Buxus Pyrenosis, a 
" Cytoro montibus plurima, nc Be- 
" recynthio tractu." La Cerda 
thinks we should read Cyrenceis or 
Cyrenis, in Pliny, instead of Pyre- 
noeis, according to the last quotation 
from Theophrastus. But Robert 
Coustantine and other learned cri- 
tics think xygjii'ji is an error in the 
copies of Theophrastus, and that it 
should be x.v^va, Corsica. It is cer- 
tain that Pliny uses Corsica, where 
the editions of Theophrastus have 
xv^»v*i: '' Crassissima in Corsica . . . 
'' Haec in Olympo Macedonise gra- 
" cilior, sed brevis." And besides, 
it is not probable that Theophras- 
tus, after he had said the box flou- 
rished most in cold places, would 
say that it grew fairest and strong- 
est in Cyrene, a country of the 
scorching Lybia. 



\ 



GEORG. LIB. 11. 



i^Ol 



Naryciaeque picis lucos : juvat arva videre 
Non rastris, hominum non ulli obnoxia curae. 
Ipsse Caucaseo steriles in vertice sylvae, 440 
Quas animosi Euri assidue franguntque ferunt- 

que, 
Dant alios aliae foetus : dant utile lignum 
Navigiis pinos, domibus cedrumque cupressos- 

que. 



anrt the groves ot N:irycian 
pitch ; it is delightful to see 
fields that are not obli8:ed to 
harrows, or any care oi men. 
Even the barren woods on (lie 
top of Caucasus, which the 
strong east winds continually 
tear and rend, give eacli of 
them their different produce ; 
gi ve pines for ships, and cedars 
and cypresses for houses. 



438. Narycupque picis lucos.'\ Na- 
ryx or Narycium was a city of the 
Locrians, in that part of Italy 
which is over-against Greece. They 
are mentioned in the third ^neid, 
where Helenus, who reigned in 
Epirus, advises ^Eneas to avoid that 
part of Italy whicli is washed by 
the Ionian sea : 

Has aiitem terras, Italique banc littoris 
Oram 

Effuge: cuncta malis habilantur mcenia 
Gratis. 

Hie et Narycii posuerunt raoenia Locri. 

Let not thy course to that ill coast he bent. 

Which fronts from far ih* Epirian conti- 
nent ; 

Those parts are all hy Grecian foei pos- 
sessed : 

Narycian Locrians here the shores infest. 
Dryx>en. 

Servius reads Marici(E, 

439- -^o" rasirisy hominum non 
ulli obnoxia curce.'] Almost all the 
editors point this verse thus : 

Non rastris hominum, non ulli obnoxia 
curae, 

which is very strange. Fields not 
obliged to harrows of men, or to any 

care. Mr. B is the first who 

places the comma after rastris, 
which must certainly be the right 
pointing. In one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts we read non nulli. 

440. Caucaseo.'l Caucasus is a 
famous ridge of mountains running 
from the Black Sea to the Caspian. 
Strabo says it abounds with all sorts 
of trees, especially those which are 



used in building ships: EyWgov 5' 
£$■/» yA»t Trxvro^tCTT^ rjj tc ct?iXr\, itcci t»j 

443. Cedrumque cupressosque.'] 
Pierius found it thus in the Roman, 
the Medicean, and other very an- 
cient manuscripts : but he says it is 
cupressos in the Lombard manu- 
script, without que, which he takes 
to be an error of the transcriber. 
In both the Arundelian manuscripts 
it is cedrumque cupressumque. In 
the King's and in one of Dr. Mead's 
it is cedrumque cupressosque. In the 
Bodleian, and in the other manu- 
script of Dr. Mead's, it is cedrumque 
cupressos. In the Cambridge manu- 
script it is cedrosque cupressosque. 
Heinsius reads cedrumque cupressos- 
que: Grimoaldus, La Cerda, and 
Ruaeus cedrosque cupressosque : and 
Masvicius cedrumque cupressumque. 
Most of the editions, which are 
not here excepted, have cedrosque 
cupressosque. 

It is much to be questioned;, whe- 
ther the cedar here spoken of is 
that which is so frequently men- 
tioned in the Scriptures j for that 
has not been observed any where 
but on mount Lebanon. It seems 
to have been but little known by 
the Greek and Roman writers. 
Theophrastus seems to speak of it 
in the ninth chapter of the fifth 
book of his History of Plants; 
where he says the cedars grow to 
a great bigness in Syria, so large 

2d 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Hence the husbandmen have 
formed spokes for thei r wheels, 
and coverings for their wag- 
gons, and have fitted crooked 
keels to ships. The willows 
abound with twigs, the elms 
with leaves; but the myrtle 
with strong spears, and the 
cornel is nseful in war; the 
yews are bent into Ityrean 
bows; 



Hinc radios trivere rotis, hinc tympana plaustris 
Agricolae, et pandas ratibus posuere carinas. 445 
Viminibus salices foecundae, frondibus ulmi : 
At myrtis validis hastilibus, et bona bello 
Cornus : Ityraeos taxi torquentur in arcus. 



that three men cannot encompass 
them : 'E^sts-Jl ^s i?? vMg, acnri^ icxi 
"ZS-pOTipov iXi^B-Yi, '^ix(p'i^ii Kurk lovg T3- 
TTOvg. 'ivB-ei f4£v y«g Aft/TO?, ivB'x 21 Kg- 
2^og ylviToii ^xv(AX<rv), KX^XTri^ kxi -z^i^i 
'Zvpi'xv. 'Ev YiVpioi. y«g svTg roi^ oqia-i 
dix^ipovrx ylvirxi rx oivo^x tjij kzo^ov 
Kx] T* v^u Kxt rZ -zirxYJii' ttihiKXVTx 
ydip Wiv, a'^ (vkic (aIv ^vj ouvxirB-xi T^iT^ 
xv^^xg -s^i^iXx^Qxniv . These large 
Syrian trees ar6 probably the ce- 
dars of Lebanon, which I believe 
Theophrastus had only heard of, 
and took to be the same with the 
Lycian cedars, only larger : for in 
the twelfth chapter of the third 
book, where he describes the cedar 
particularly, he says the leaves are 
like those of Juniper, but more 
prickly : and adds that the berries 
are much alike. Therefore the ce- 
dar described by Theophrastus can- 
not be that of Lebanon, which 
bears cones, and not berries. I 
take it rather to be a sort of Juni- 
per, which is called Juniperus major 
bacca rufescente by Caspar Bauhin, 
Oxycedrus by Parkinson, and Oxy- 
cedrus Phcenicea by Gerard. What 
Pliny and Dioscorides have said of 
the cedar is very confused. 

446". Viminibus salices Jcecundce.] 
The twigs of the willows are used 
to bind the vines, and to make all 
sorts of wicker works. 

Frondibus ulmi.~\ The cattle were 
fed with leaves of elms. Thus Co- 
lumella: '' Est autem ulmus longe 
'^ laetior et procerior, quam nostras, 
" frondemque jucundiorem bubus 
*' praebet: qua cum assidue pecus 
" alueris, et postea generis alterius 



" frondem dare institueris, fastidi- 
'' um bubus affert." This use of elm 
leaves is confirmed by Mr. Evelyn, 
who says, '' The use of the very 
" leaves of this tree, especially of 
'' the female, is not to be despised ; 
-' for being suffered to dry in the 
^' sun upon the branches, and the 
" spray stripped off about the de- 
*' crease in August, (as also where 
'' the suckers and stolones are su- 
" pernumerary, and hinder the 
" thrivingof their nurses,) they will 
'^ prove a great relief to cattle in 
" winter, and scorching summers, 
" when hay and fodder is dear, they 
^' will eat them before oats, and 
" thrive exceedingly well with 
''-them J remember only to lay 
" your boughs up in some dry and 
'' sweet corner of your barn. It 
'' was for this the Poet praised 
*' them, and the epithet was ad- 
'^ vised. Fruitful in leaves the elm. 
" In some parts of Herefordshire 
" they gather them in sacks for 
" their swine and other cattle, ac- 
'^ cording to this husbandry." 

4-47. Myrtus validis hastilibus, et 
bona bello cornus.] Their spears and 
darts were anciently made of myr- 
tle and cornel : but Pliny prefers 
the ash for these uses: " Obedien- 
" tissima quocunque in opere fraxi- 
" nus, eademque hastis corylo me- 
" lior, corno levior, sorbo lentior." 

In one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts 
it is at bona bello cornus. 

448. Ityroeos taxi torquentur in 
arcusr\ The Ityrcei or Iturcei were 
a people of Coele Syria, famous for 
shooting with a bow. 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



203 



Nee tiliae laeves, aut torno rasile buxum 449 
Non formam accipiunt, ferroque cavantur acuto. 
Nee non et torrentem undam levis innatat alnus 
Missa Pado : nee non et apes examina condunt 
Corticibusque cavis, vitiosaeque illieis alveo. 
Quid memorandum aeque Baeeheia dona tu- 
lerunt ? 454 



the smooth limes also, and 
the turner's box are shaped, 
and hollowed with sharp 
tools. The light alder swims 
also on the rough flood, when 
it is launched on the Po; and 
bees conceal their young in 
hollow barks, and in the body 
of a rotten holm-oak. VJUnt 
have the ait'ts of Bacchus 
produced in comparison of 
these? 



Pierius says that in some ancient 
manuscripts it is curvuntur instead 
of torquentur. Servius, and some 
of the old editors, and Schrevelius, 
have curvantur. 

449. Tilice loeves.'] Pliny says 
moUissima tUice, and tilice ad mille 
usus pelendce. 

Torno rasile buxum.'\ Box is well 
known to be turned into a great 
variety of utensils. 

451. Alnus.'] See the note on 
ver. 136. of the first Georgick. 

452. Missa Pado.] The Po is a 
famous river of Italy. Alders are 
said to grow in abundance on its 
banks. 

453. Ilicis.] Mr. Evelyn asserts, 
that the Esculus of the ancients was 
a species of Ilex : " The acorns of 
" the coccigera, or dwarf -oak, yield 
*' excellent nourishment for rustics, 
" sweet, and little, if at all, inferior 
*' to the chesnut, and this, and not 
*' the fagus, was doubtless the true 
" Esculus of the ancients, the food 
" of the golden age." But it is 
plain, that the very tree of which 
this learned gentleman speaks was 
called Ilex by Pliny ; for this author 
says expressly that the Ilex bears 
the coccus or chermes berry : " Om- 
" nes tamen has ejus dotes ilex solo 
*' provocat cocco." The same au- 
thor says the leaves of the Esculus 
are sinuated, whereas those of the 
Ilex are not sinuated: " Folia prae- 
'' ler ilicem gravia, carnosa, pro- 



*' cera, sinuosa lateribus." Besides 
the very name of dwarf-oak shews 
this sort of Ilex cannot be the an- 
cient Esculus, which is described as 
a very large tree. Mr. Evelyn seems 
to have thought the dwarf-oak or 
scarlet-oak to be the Esculus, be- 
cause its acorns are so good to eat: 
but this is no good proof neither: 
for Pliny says the acorns of the Es- 
culus are inferior to those of the 
common oak : '' Glans optima in 
'' quercu atque grandissima, mox 
'' esculo." 

Alveo.] Servius reads alvo. Pie- 
rius found alveo in the Roman ma- 
nuscript, with which he was greatly 
delighted : " In Romano codice le- 
" gitur alveo, quod mirifice placet." 
Alveo is now generally received. 

454. Quid memorandum oeqite, &c.] 
Having spoken of the great uses of 
forest trees, he falls into an excla- 
mation against the vine, which is 
not Only less useful than those trees 
which nature bestows on us with- 
out our care ; but is also the cause 
of quarrels and murders. He pro- 
duces a noted instance of the quar- 
rel between the Centaurs and La- 
pithae. Ovid has described it at 
large in tiie twelfth book of the 
Metamorphosis. Pirithous, king 
of the Lapithae, had married Hip- 
podamia. At these nuptials Eury- 
tus, a Centaur, being inflamed 
with lust and wine, attempted to 
ravish the bride: which example 
'2 D 2 



204 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



So"5f 'crfmes; "he overcame Bacchus ct ad culpaiii causHS dcdit : ille furcntcs 

the Centaurs raging with mur- ,, i i i . -r»i -i-»i 

der, RhtEtiis, Phojns, and Lciitauros letho domuit, Khoetumque Fho- 

Hylaeus threatening the La- ' T. 

pith« with a huge goblet. lumque, 456 

Et magno Hylaeum Lapithis cratere minantem. 



was followed by the rest^ wiio en- 
deavoured each to seize upon such 
young ladies as they chose. The- 
seus rising in defence of the bride 
slew Eurytus, and, the other guests 
assisting, all the Centaurs were 
either slain or put to flight. 

455. Culpam.'] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is culpas. 

Furentes Centauros letho domuit.'] 
*' This passage is generally ex- 
*' plained by joining letho with do- 
*' muit. But it seems to me that 
** it should be joined with furentes, 
*' as it is said furens ira, invidia, 
" amore, &c. and as Virgil himself 
" says in the second ^neid : 



Vidi ipse furentem 



" Coede Neoptolemum, 

** And then the meaning is, domuit^ 
" he ouercame,in the common sense, 
" as wine is said to overcome any 
'* one, and made them mad to death. 
" In the other sense Virgil would 
" contradict what he said before. 
" Bacchus et ad culpam causas dedit. 
" How would Bacchus have been 
" to blame, for having punished 
" with death profligate wretches 
•' that would have ravished the 
" bride from her husband ? This 
" was a just, and not a blameable 
'* action, but his blame was his 
" overcoming their reason, and ex- 
" citing them to that outrage.'* 

Mr. B . 

We find in Virgil sternere letho 
and dejicere lethoy and therefore I 
do not doubt but domare letho 
might be used. But what seems 
to me the strongest confirmation of 
Mr. B ^"s opinion is, that we find 



in Ovid, that neither Rhoetus nor 
Pholus were slain, but that they 
both fled : 

Assidue successu caedis ovantem. 

Qua juncta est humero cervix, sude figis 

obusta. 
Ingemuit, duroque sudem vix osse re- 

vellit 
Khcetus ; et ipse suo raadefacius sanguine 

fugit. 
Fugit et Orneus, Lycabasque, et saucius 

armo 
Dexteriore Medon et cum Pisenore 

Thaumas : 
Quique pedum nuper certamine vicerat 

oranes 
Mermeros ; accepto nunc vulnere tardias 

ibat: 
Et Pholus, et Melaneus, et Abas praeda- 

tor aprorum. 

For through his shoulder, leho had tri- 
umphed long 
In daily slaughter, Dryasfix*d his prong. 
Who groning, tugs it out "with all his 

might : 
And soil'd with blood, converts his heels to 

flight. 
So Lycidas, Arnceus, Medon, (sped 
In his right arme) Pisenor, Caumas fled : 
Wound-tardy Mermerus, late swift of 

pa£e : 
Menelem, Pholus, Abas, us*d to chase 
The bore. 

Sandys. 

457. Cratere minantem.'] Ovid 
tells us they began to fight with 
drinking vessels, which is not un- 
usual in drunken quarrels : 

Forte fuit juxta signis extantibus asper 
Antiquus crater, quern vastum vastier 

ipse 
Sustulit iEgides; adversaque misit iu 

ora. 

Hard by there stood an antique gobletf 

wrought 
With extant figures : this JEgides caught : 
HurVd at the face of Eurytus. 

Sandys. 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



205 



O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, 
Agricolas ! quibus ipsa, procul discordibus armis, 
Fiindit homo facilem victum justissima tellus. 
Si non ingentem foribus domus alta superbis 
Mane salutantum totis vomit aedibus undam; 
Nee varios inhiant pulchra testudine postes, 
Illusasque auro vestes, Ephyreiaque aera ; 
Alba neque Assyrio fuscatur lana veneno, 465 



O too happy Lusbanrtmen, did 
tbey but know tlieir own fe- 
licity! to wliom me earth 
herselfi far from cunteiKting 
arms, most justly pours forth 
an easy sustenance. If they 
have no lofiy palace with 
proud gates, to vomit forth 
from every part a vast tide of 
morning visitors ; if they do 
not gape atier pillars adorned 
wiih tottoiseshell, or gar- 
ments embroidered with gold, 
or Corinthian brass; if their 
white wool is not sullied with 
Assyrian dye, 



And 

Vina dabant aniinos : et prima pocula 

piigna 
Missa volant, fragilesque cadi, curvique 

lebetes : 
Res epulis quondam, nunc belle et cae- 

dibus aptse. 
Wine courage gives. At first an uncouth. 

flight 
Of flaggonSf pots., and bozcls, began the 

fight: 
Late fit for banquets, now for hlood and 

broils. 

Sandys. 

458. fortunatos, &c.] The Poet, 
having just mentioned a scene of 
war and confusion^ changes the 
subject to a wonderfully beautiful 
description of the innocent and 
peaceful pleasures of a country 
life. He begins with shewing, that 
the pomp and splendor of courts 
and cities are neither to be met 
with in the country, nor in them- 
selves desirable. He then proceeds 
to mention the real satisfactions 
which are to be found in the coun- 
try : quiet, integrity, plenty, diver- 
sions, exercise, piety, and religion. 

Cicero, in his defence of Sextus 
Roscius, says, that all sorts of wick- 
edness proceed from the luxury of 
cities ; but that the country life is 
the mistress of frugality, diligence, 
and justice; "In urbe luxuries 
" creatur : ex luxuria existat avari- 
*' tia necesse est : ex avaritia erum- 
'* pat audacia: inde omnia scelera, 
*' ac maleficia gignuntur. Vitaau- 



" tern haec rustica, quam tu agres- 
'' tem vocas, parsimoniae, diligen- 
** tiae, justitiae magistra est." 

462. Mane salutantum^ It was 
the custom amongst the Romans, 
for the clients to attend the levees 
of their patrons. 

Totis.'\ In the King's manuscript 
it is notis. 

Vomit.'] Pierius says, that in the 
Medicean manuscript it is vomai, 
which he thinks sounds more ele- 
gantly. 

463. Testudine.'] Some think 
that testudine is here used for an 
arch supported by the pillars, or 
the shell of a door. But I rather 
believe it alludes to that custom of 
the rich Romans, of covering their 
bed-posts and other partsof their fur- 
niture with plates of tortoiseshell. 

464. lllusas.] In the Cambridge 
and Bodleian manuscripts it is in- 
clusas. Pierius says it is inclusas in 
some manuscripts, but illusas in 
the most ancient. Servius takes 
notice, that some read inclusas ^ but 
he condemns it. 

Ephyreiaque (Era.] Corinth is 
sometimes called Ephyre, from 
Ephyre, the daughter of Epime- 
theus. It is well known that the 
Corinthian brass was very famous 
amongst the ancients. 

465. Neque.] Servius and some 
others read nee. Pierius says it is 
neque in the Medicean and some 
other ancient manuscripts. 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



nor the ase of the pure oil 
tainted with perfumes; yet 
there is no want of secure rest, 
and a life ignorant of fraud, 
and rich in various worl<s; 
nor of ease in large farms, 
caves and living lakes; nor of 
cool valleys, and the lowing 
of oxen, and soft sleep under 
trees. There are lawns, and 
habitations of wild beasts, and 
a youth patient of labour, and 
contented with a little, altars 
of gods, and honoured parents : 



Nec casia liquidi corrumpitur usus olivi ; 
At secura quies, et nescia fallere vita, 
Dives opum variarum : at latis otia fundis, 
Speluncae, vivique lacus : at frigida Tempe, 469 
Mugitusque bourn, mollesque sub arbore somni 
Non absunt. Illic saltus, ac lustra ferarum, 
Et patiens operum, exiguoque assueta juventus. 
Sacra deum, sanctique patres : extrema per illos 



Assyria veneno.'] He means the 
Tyrian purple, which was obtained 
from a sort of shell-fish. Tyre was 
in Coele Syria. The Poet seems to 
use Assyria for Syria. 

Fuscalur.'] So I read with the 
King's, one of the Arundelian^ both 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts, and Hein- 
sius. The common reading is fu- 
catur, which signifies barley is 
coloured: but fuscatur signifies is 
obscured, imbrowned, or sullied, 
which I take to be the Poet's 
meaning. He shews his contempt 
of spoiling the native whiteness of 
wool with that expensive colour ; 
as, in the next verse, he speaks of 
the pure oil being tainted with per- 
fumes. 

466. Casia. ^ See the note on 
ver. 213. 

467. ^t secura quies.'] Pier i us 
says it is ac in the Lombard manu- 
script. But surely the Poet wrote 
at: for he is here opposing the 
real, innocent, untainted pleasures 
of a country life to the noise and 
luxury of courts, and cities. 

Nescia fallere vita.] Pierius says 
it is vitam in the Roman manu- 
script, which must make nescia 
agree with quies, but it is vita in all 
the rest, which is better. 

468. At.] It is ac in the King's 
manuscript. Pierius also found ac. 

469- At.] Here again it is ac in 
the Lombard manuscript, according 
to Pierius. I find ac also in the 



King's and both Dr. Mead's ma- 
nuscripts: but at seems to be 
much better in all these places. 

Frigida Tempe.] Tempe is the 
name of a very pleasant valley in 
Thessaly. Hence it is not unusual 
to find Tempe used by the poets 
for any pleasant place though not 
in Thessaly. Thus I take it to be 
used in this place for cool valleys in 
general. 

471. Illic] It is illis in the 
Cambridge manuscript, and in some 
printed editions. Pierius says it is 
illic in all the ancient manuscripts 
he had seen. 

Sallus.] Saltus properly signifies 
open places in the midst of woods, 
which aflford room for cattle to 
feed. Thus we have in the third 
Georgick : 

Saltibus in vacuis pascunt. 

Lustra ferarum.'] By the habi- 
tations of dens or wild beasts the 
Poet means the diversion of hunt- 
ing : thus May j 

And pleasant huntings want not. 

472. Exiguo!] Pierius says it is 
exiguo in the Roman manuscript: 
Heinsius and Masvicius also read 
exiguo. The common reading is 
parvo. 

473. Sanctique patres.] By these 
words the Poet designs to exf*ress, 
that amongst the uncorrupted coun- 
trymen their fathers are treated with 
reverence. Thus Mr. B 



GEORG. LIB. II 



J^O" 



Justitia excedens terris vestigia fecit. 
Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musas, 475 
Quarum sacra fero ingenti percussus amore, 
Accipiant ; caelique vias, et sidera monstrent : 
Defectus solis varios, lunaeque labores : 
Unde tremor terris : qua vi maria alta tumescant 
Objicibus ruptis, rursusque in se ipsa residant : 
Quid tantum Oceano properent se tingere soles 
Hyberni,velquagtardis moranoctibus obstet. 482 
Sin, has ne possim naturae accedere partes, 
Frigidus obstiterit circum praecordia sanguis ; 
Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes ; 
Fluraina amem, sylvasque inglorius : O ! ubi 



when Justice iet( the earth, she 
took her last step from amongi'f 
these people. But in llie first 
place, above all things, may 
the sweet Mnses, whose priest 
I am, being smitten with great 
love of poesy, receive me, and 
shew me the paths ot heaven, 
and the stars, the various 
eclipses of the sun, and labours 
of the moon : what causes the 
earth to tremble; by what 
force the deep seas swell, and 
break their banks, and then 
again fall back; why the 
winter suns make such haste 
to dip themselves in the ocean : 
or what delay retards the slow 
nights. £ut if the chill blood 
about my; heart hinders me 
from attaining to these parts 
of nature; may fields and 
streams gliding in valleys de- 
light me; n:ay I love rivers 
and woods inglorious; oh! 
where there a;e plains, 



cam pi, 



486 



And aged sires rever'd. 

I have chosen to make use of the 
word honoured, because,, in our reli- 
gion, this duty to parents is styled 
honour. 

Exirema per illos Justitia excfdevs 
terris vestigia fecit.] In the Cam- 
bridge manuscript it is /igit. 

Astraea or Justice was feigned by 
the poets to have descended from 
heaven in the golden age. She 
continued upon earth till the wick- 
edness of the brazen age gave her 
such offence, that she left mankind 
and flew up to heaven. Aratus 
says, she retired first from cities 
into the country, so that this was 
the last place she left. The Greek 
Poet speaks largely on this subject. 

475. Me vero primum, &c.] The 
Poet here declares his natural in- 
clination to be towards philoso- 
phy and poetry. He declares him- 
self to be the priest of the Muses ; 
and prays them to instruct him in 
astronomy : to teach him the causes 
of eclipses, earthquakes, the flux 
and reflux of the sea, and of the 



unequal length of days and nights. 
The next wish is, that, if he cannot 
obtain this, he may enjoy a quiet 
retirement in the country. 

476. Quorum sacra fero'] It is 
usual with the poets to call them- 
selves priests of the Muses: thus 
Horace ; 



Carmina non prius 



Audita Musarum Sacerdos 
Viiginibus puerisque canto : 

And Ovid: 

llie ego Musarum purus, Phoebiquc Sa^ 
cerdos. 

479. Tumescant.'] It is iumescunt 
in the Lombard manuscript, ac- 
cording to Pierius: thus I find 
residunt in the next verse instead 
of residant, in some of the old 
editions. 

485. Rigui.] Pierius says it is 
rigidi in the Roman manuscript. 

486. Inglorius.'] Philosophy, in 
Virgil's time, was in great reputa- 
tion amongst the Romans. Our 
Poet seems to have had Lucretius 
in his eye, when he wrote this 



208 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



wh^ere^e'&pamn vi?Sfr'e: Spercliiusque, ct virginibus bacchata Lacaenis 

vel! oh! that any one would . ,. ,. . „., -_ 

Ssmns^ '" ^^^ *^*^°' '""^^^ "*" ^yS^^^ • ^5 R^^i ^^""^ gelidis in vallibus Haemi 



passage. He entreats the Muses to 
teach him the heights of philoso- 
phy, which that Poet had described 
with so much elegance. But if he 
cannot reach so far, he begs, in the 
next place, that he may have a 
secure, quiet retirement in the 
country, though destitute of that 
glory, which he seeks in the first 
place. Cowley observes upon this 
passage, that '' the first wish of 
'f Virgil was to be a good philoso- 
'*^ pher ; the second, a good hus- 
" bandman ; and God, whom he 
'^ seemed to understand hetter than 
'' most of the learned heathens, 
" dealt with him just as he did 
" with Solomon : because he prayed 
'' for wisdom in the first place, he 
'' added all things else which were 
'' subordinately to be desired. He 
" made him one of the best phi- 
*' losophers, and the best husband- 
" man, and to adorn and communi- 
" cate both those faculties, the best 
"poet: he made him besides all 
" this a rich man, and a man who 
" desired to be no richer. for- 
" tunatus nimium, et bona qui sua 
" novit." 

! uhi campi.'] I do not take 
the Poet's meaning to be, that he 
is enquiring where these places are ; 
which he surely knew. He ex- 
presses his delight to be in such 
valleys, rivers, and woods, as are to 
be met with in Thessaly, Laconia, 
and Thrace. May is the only 
translator, who has not supposed 
this to be a question : 

Then let me (fameless) love the fields 

and woods, 
The fruitful water'd vales, and running 

floods. 



Those plains, where clear Sperchius runs, 

that mount 
Where Spartan virgins to great Bacchus 

wont 
"o sacrifice, or shady vales that lie 
Under high Haemus, let my dwelling be. 

Dryden has so paraphrased these 
lines, that he has rather imitated 
than translated Virgil : 

My next desire is, void of care and strife, 
To lead a soft, secure, inglorious life. 
A country cottage near a crystal flood, 
A winding valley and a lofty wood. 
Some god conduct me to the sacred 

shades. 
Where Bacchanals are sung by Spartan 

maids. 
Or lift me high to Haemus' hilly crown : 
Or on the plains of Tempe lay me down : 
Or lead me to some solitary place, 
And cover my retreat from human race. 

Mr. B— represents the Poet as 
asking the question where these 
places are : 

O! where Taygeta are thy sacred shades, 
Resounding with the songs of Spartan 
maids ? 

And Dr. Trapp : 

■ O ! where are the plains, 
Sperchius, and Taygeta, by the dames 
Of Sparta, swoln with Bacchanalian rage. 
Frequented ? 

487. Sperchius.'] Sperchius is a 
famous river of Thessaly rising 
from mount Pindus. 

Virginibus bacchata LaccBuis Tay- 
geta.'] Taygetus, in the plural 
number Taygeta, is a mountain of 
Laconia near Sparta : it was sa- 
cred to Bacchus J and his orpes 
were celebrated upon it by the La- 
cedaemonian women. 

488. Gelidis in vallibus Hcemi.'] 
Haemus is a mountain of Thrace. 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



209 



Sistat, et ingenti raraorum protegat umbra ! 
Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas : 490 
Atque metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum 



and shelter me with a va&t 
shade of branches! Happy 
was the man, who was able 
to know the causes of things ; 
and could cast all fears, and 
inexorable fate, 



Servius calls it a mountain of Tl»es- 
saly: " Hcemi: montis Tliessaliae : 
*' in qua etiam sunt Tempe." See 
the note on ver. 412. of the first 
Georgick. It is strange that Dry- 
den should write 

Or lift me high to Haemus' hilly crown. 

for the cool valleys of Hcemus. 

In one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts 
it is gelidis convallibiis instead of 
gelidis in vallibus. 

490. Felix, qui potuit, &c.] The 
commentators generally understand 
this to be a repetition of what he 
had said before: only that as he 
had then given the preference to 
philosophy ; now he seems to make 
the philosopher and the country- 
man equal ; for he pronounces them 
both happy. I take the Poet's 
meaning to be this. In the para- 
graph beginning with O fortunatos, 
&c. he had shewn the happiness of 
the country live, in opposition to 
living in courts and cities. In the 
next paragraph, beginning with me 
vera, he. he expressed his earnest 
desire to become a natural philo- 
sopher ; or, if he could not attain 
that, a good husbandman. In the 
paragraph now under consideration, 
he shews the happiness of the 
countryman to be like that which 
was sought after by the Epicurean 
philosophy. Epicurus was happy 
in overcoming all fears, especially 
the fear of death : the countryman 
is happy in conversing with the 
rural deities, in being free from 
troubles, and the uneasy passions 
of the mind. He lives on the fruits 
of his own trees, without being 
troubled with contentions, or law- 
suits. 



Rerum cognoscere causas.'\ Epi- 
curus wrote thirty-seven books of 
Natural Philosophy, which Dioge- 
nes Laertius says were excellent: 
Koti TO, (rvyy^df^uocTcc. fJt.iv 'E.TFix.ov^a ro- 
c-ocvru, Koii rt/iXiKuvTct, uv ret /i'zXri^et jW 
T«^s. Tli^t (pvcrwq, A^', &C. 

491. ^tque metus omnes j &c.] 
Epicurus, in his epistle to Menoe- 
ceus, exhorts his friend to accus- 
tom himself not to be concerned at 
the thoughts of death: seeing all 
good and evil consists in sensation 5 
and death is a privation of sense: 

ilvcci rov B'dvarov. iTTit zaSiv eiyu^ov KXt 

a-iui, ^cimTog. In another place of 
the same epistle he asks him who 
can be a better man, than he that 
thinks worthily of the gods, and 
bears death without terror: 'Etts/, 
rtvoi vof4,it,%i(; tivoti x^tirrevot rov )cxi "Tn^l 
S-jSv oarioc do^ci^ovTog, xcii TTi^i ^etvciTOV 

die&'^xvTos cc^oZwg i^ovTog. Lucretius 
extols Epicurus for dispelling the 
terrors of the mind, and removing 
the fears of Acheron : 

Tu pater, et rerum inventor : tu patria 

nobis 
Suppeditas praecepta : tuisque ex, inclute, 

chartis, 
Floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia li- 

mant. 
Omnia nos itidem depascimur aurea 

dicta, 
Aurea perpetua semper dignissima vita. 
Nam simul ac Ratio tua coepit vociferari 
Naturam rerum haud Divina mente 

coortam, 
Diffugmnt Aiiimi terrores ; moenia mundi 
Discedunt, totum video per inane geri 

res. 
Apparet divum numen,sedesque quietae : 
Quas neque concutiunt venti, neque nu- 

bila nimbis 
Adspergunt, neque nix acri concrela 

pruina 
!2 E 



no 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and the noise of greedy A- 
Hap- 



Subjecit pedibus, 
avari ! 



strepitumque Acherontis 



» gr 
chcron beneath his feet 
py also is he, wlio has known 
the rural gods, Pan, and old 
i>yivanas, and the sister -^ -n i • • 

nymphs! Him neither the Jj OrtUliatUS Ct lilc, deOS QUI HOVlt ao^resteS, 
rods of the people, nor the ' T, E3 ' 

purple of kings PanaquG, Sylvanumque senem, Nymphasque 



sorores 



Ilium non populi fasces, non purpura regum 495 



Cana cadens violat ; sempeique innubilis 

ffilher 
Integit, et large difFuso lumine ridet. 
Omnia suppeditat porro natura, neque 

ulla 
Res animi pacem delibrat tempore in 

uUo. 
At contra nusquam apparent Achcrusia 

templa. 

Thou, parent of philosophy ^ hast shown 
The way to truth hy precepts of thy otvn : 
For as from sweetest Jlow'rs the lab'ring 

bee 
Extracts her precious sweets, threat soul ! 

from thee 
We all our golden sentences derive; 
Golden, and ft eternally to live. 
For when I hear thy mighty reasons prove 
This world was made without the pow'ra 

alove ; 
All fears and terrors waste, and fly apace; 
Thro' parted heav'ns I see the mighty 

space. 
The rise of things, the gods, and happy 

seats. 
Which storm or vi'lent tempest never 

beats, 
Nor snow invades, hit with the purest air, 
And gaudy light diffusd look gay and 

fair: 
There bounteous Nature makes supplies 

for ease. 
Their minds enjoy uninterrupted peace : 
But that which senseless we so grossly 

fear. 
No hell, no sulph'rous lakes, no pools ap. 

pear. 

Creech. 

Inexorahile.'] Pierius says it is 
ineluctabile in the Roman manu- 
script. 

492. Strepitumque Acherontis 
fli'orz.] In the King's and one 
of Dr. Mead's manuscripts it is 
sirepitusque. 

Acheron is fabled to be one of 



the rivers of hell ; and is put for 
hell itself. 

493. Fortunatus ei UIce.'] Here the 
Poet compares the happiness, which 
results from the innocence of a 
country life, to that which is ob- 
tained by philosophy. Cicero in 
his treatise on old age says the 
life of a husbandman approaches 
very near to that of a philosopher : 
" Mihi ad sapientis vitam proxime 
'' videtur accedere." Columella 
says it is nearly related to philoso- 
phy : '^ Res rustica sine dubitatione 
" proxima, et quasi consanguinea 
*' sapientise est." 

494. Panaque.'] Pan is the chief 
of the rural deities. 

Sylvanumque senemr\ See the 
note on book i. ver. 20. 

Nymphasque sorores.'] There were 
several sorts of nymphs : the Naiads 
presided over rivers j the Nereids 
over seas ; the Oreads over moun- 
tains ; the Dryads over woods, &c. 

495. Populi fasces.'] The fasces 
were bundles of birchen rods, in 
the midst of which was placed an 
axe, with the head appearing at the 
top. They were the ensigns of au- 
thority, and were carried before 
the Roman magistrates. We learn 
from Diogenes Laertius, that Epi- 
curus avoided public offices out 
of modesty : 'T5r«g€oA? y«g ixiuttuas, 
611^1 TrehiTiUg Jj4'«to. Cicero also 
seems to insinuate, that the Epi- 
curean philosophy persuaded men 
not to engage in public business: 
" Nee ulla tamen ei philosophise 



jG^EORG. LIB. II. 



211 



Plexit, et infidos agitans discordia fratres ; 
Aut conjurato descendeiis Dacus ab Istro: 
Non res Romanae, perituraque regna : neque ille 



has moved, iior the discord 
that reigns between faithless 
brothers; nor the Dacian de- 
scending from the conspiring; 
Ister; nor the affairs of Rome, 
nor kingdoms doomed to 
perish : nor has he 



"' fiet injuria a nobis. Non enim 
'' repelletur intle, quo aggredi cu- 
'•^piet: sed in hortulis quiescet 
*' suis, ubi vult ; ubi etiam recu- 
^* bans, molliter, et delicate, nos 
*' avocat a rostrls, ajudiciis, a curia : 
*' fortasse sapienter, hac praesertim 
*' republica." Virgil observes, tiiat, 
if this retirement from public af- 
fairs is to be accounted a part of 
happiness, the countryman enjoys 
it abundantly. He does not seek 
after mj'gistracies, nor courts; he 
has nothing to do with discord, nor 
concerns himself about foreign con- 
spiracies. 

497. Conjurato descendens Dacus 
ab Istro.'l The Danube or Ister is 
the largest river in Europe : several 
different nations dwelling on its 
banks. The ancients called this 
river Danubius at its beginning, 
and till it reaches lUyricum; but 
below that, Ister. Virgil therefore 
calls it the Ister with great pro- 
priety, because the Dacians inhabit 
the lower parts of it, not far from 
its falling into the Euxine sea. 

The Dacinns inhabited those 
parts which are now called Tran- 
sylvania, Moldavia, and Waliachia. 
It is said, they had a custom of 
filling their mouths with the water 
of this river, before they undertook 
any war, and swearing that they 
would not return into their own 
country, till they had slain their 
enemies. Therefore Virgil calls it 
the conspiring Ister, because the 
Dacians were accustomed to con- 
spire after this manner on the 
banks of the river Ister. 

498. Neque ille aut doluit miserans 
inopem, aut invidit habenti.'\ Epicu- 
rus placed a great happiness in 



being free from perturbations of 
the mind, of which pity and envy 
are not the least. This happiness 
the husbandman enjoys, for, in the 
country, nature produces so many 
necessaries of life, that there can 
be no objects of pity; and his life 
is so happy in itself, that he has no 
temptation to envy any one. Ser- 
vius, and after him most of the 
commentators, take Virgil to speak 
here of a Stoical apathy, in which 
sense Dryden seems to have trans- 
lated him : 

Nor envies he the rich their heapy 
store, 

Nor his own peace distm-bs with pity 
for the poor. 

Virgil had no such ill-natured 
meaning, nor Epicurus neither. 
Epicurus might be against pity, so 
far as it ruffled the mind and made 
it uneasy: but he was far from 
condemning it in the sense we fre- 
quently use it, of relieving the 
wants and necessities of our neigh- 
bours. Diogenes Laertius tells us 
that he was remarkable for piety 
to his parents, kindness to his bro- 
thers, gentleness to his servants, 
and the best natured man in the 
world : Ilgos revs yoviocg iv^ec^mct, ««' 
ij zr^og rdvg ci^tX^ovg tVTFcitcc, -ss-^og r& 
roifg otKiTxg *i^i^iTng .... Koe^lXtv ds « 
-TcAg •TcdvTet.g etVTov ^iXecvB'^aTrici. It IS 
not to be supposed that a man of 
such a character could be backward 
in supporting those who wanted 
his assistance: nay the very con- 
trary appears from the whole tenor 
of his life. Seneca distinguishes 
pity from clemency and good-na- 
ture, and says it differs from them, 
as superstition does from religion, 
and is a mark of a vulgar mind : 
2 E 2 



212 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



thTpooVf nm- SV^'envfed Aut dolult miserans inopem, aut invidit habenti. 

the rich. He has gathered 

suchasts^wnwiiiS"™ ^^^^ ^^^^ fiuctus, quos ipsa voleiitia rura 500 



" Quemadmodum religiodeos colit, 
'* superstitioviolat; ita cleinentiam 
'^ mansuetudinemque omnes boni 
" praestabunt, misericordiam autem 
" vitabunt. Est enim vitiuni pu- 
'' silli animi, ad speciem alienorum 
'" malorum succidentis. Itaque pes- 
*' simo cuique familiarissima est." 
Thus Virgil does not suppose iiis 
countryman obdurate to the cries 
of the poor, but so happy as not to 
see any of his neighbours so mise- 
rable, as to be objects of con)pas- 
sion. May has very justly trans- 
lated this passage : 

He sees no poor, whose miserable state 
He suffers for. 

Cowley speaks much to the same 
purpose in his discourse of agri- 
culture : '' There are as many ways 
'* to be rich, and, which is better^ 
" there is no possibility to be poor, 
'' without such negligence as can 
" have neither excuse nor pity ; 
** for a little ground will without 
" question feed a little family, and 
" the superfluities of life, which are 
'' now in some cases by custom 
'' made almost necessary, must be 
" supplied out of the superabim- 
*' dance of art and industry, or con- 
'' temned by as great a degree of 
" philosophy." 

500. Quos ramifructus, &c.] No 
man's memory has been more tra- 
duced than that of Epicurus. He 
has been represented as a person 
wholly given up to luxury and in- 
temperance. His name is become 
a proverb, to express a voluptuous 
person, whose whole pleasure was 
in eating and drinking. And yet it 
is certain that he was a great pr»t- 
tern of temperance, and recom- 
mended it to his followers. Dio- 



genes Laertius informs us that he 
was contented with bread and wa- 
ter, and, when he had a mind to 
gratify his appetite, he added a 
piece of cheese : Ayro; ts (p/jr*!* ev rxig 

KV^^idl6V, iV oTeiv (iovXcifAXi, TToXVTlXi- 

G-xahcci dvva^xi. Epicurus iiimself, 
in his epistle to Menoeceus, says, 
that when he speaks of pleasure he 
does not mean the pleasures of the 
voluptuous and intemperate, as 
some have misinterpreted him : 
but tranquillity of mind and a body 
void of pain. Not eating, says he, 
and drinking, not venereal enjoy- 
ments, not a luxurious table, procure 
a pleasant life, but sober reasoning, 
which searches into the causes why 
somethingsare to be chosen, others to 
be rejected, and explodes those opi- 
nionswhich tend todisturbthe mind: 

"Otccv evv Xiya>fCi9 iiddvh TeAa? V'^ee^^m, 
Of rag tcov oia'anon nioovceg, kui Totg rat iv 
aTToXxva-ii mi^iyxg hiyouiv, ag ring uy- 
voovirig y.ai ov^ ofioXoyovvra it x-xxag 
hc^t^i^ivoi vof^i^ovo-d, uXXa to f4))Ts u.X- 
yuv y.cx.ra (rafAcc, ^Y,ri rcc^ccrres-B^xi Kccru, 
'4^y%>5*'- *y y^S. "^oroi y.xi x,afioi a-vmpoi- 
riq, ciy uToXxi/a-iig vai'huv xmi yvixiKtUr, 
ov^ i^^vui x.xi rZv (ih'hcav 'o(rx ^'i^u 
TCoXvTiXhg r^XTit,cA, rov »i2v> yivtec ^of, 
ecX>^ec, v>i(pai Xcyia-fMg, icxi rxg ulrixg 
i%l^ivmi 7rci(rr,g xl^i<ri6)g x.xi (Pvytig, kx] 
rag 2o^xg l^iXxvuofr, el<p' &>v TtXu^og rxg 
"^v^^ug x.xrxXxuox*u ^d^vZcg. \ Irgil 
savs his countryman enjoys these 
frugal blessings of temperance: he 
live^ upon the fruits of his own 
trees, and what nature produces all 
around him. This Cowley calls 
being a true Epicure : 

When Epicurus to the world had taught. 
That pleasure was the chiefest good. 



GEORG. LIB. II. 

Sponte tulere sua, carpsit : nee ferrea jura, 
Insanumque forum, aut populi tabularia vidit. 
SoUicitant alii remis treta caeca, ruuntque 
In ferrum ; penetrant aulas et limina regum : 
Hie petit exeidiis urbem, miserosque Penates, 
Ut gemma bibat, et Sarrano indormiat ostro. 506 



'2Vi 



have yielded spontaneously : 
nor has he seen the hardships 
of the law, and the mad 
Forum, or the courts of the 
people. Some trouble tiie 
blind seas with oars, rush into 
war, and penetrate the courts 
and palaces of kings. One 
seeks to ruin cities and mise- 
rable families, that he may 
drink in gems, and sleep on 
Sarran scarlet. 



And was perhaps i' th' right, if rightly 

understood. 
His life he to his doctrine brought. 
And in a garden's shade that sovereign 

pleasure sought. 
Whoever a tnie Epictcre vtrould be. 
May there find cheap, and virtuous lux- 

urie. 

502. Tabularia?^ The Tahula- 
rium was a place at Rome, where 
the public records were kept. 

503. SoUicitant alii, &c.] In this 
passage the Poet shews the prefer- 
ence of agriculture to the several 
employments and desires of men. 

506. Sarrano.'] Tyre was an- 
ciently called Sarra. Servius says 
it had its name from the fish Sar, 
with which it abounds. " Sarrano 
'^ dormiat ostro. Tyria purpura. 
" Quae enim nunc Tyros dicitur, 
" olim Sarra vocabatur, a pisce 
" quodam, qui illic abundat ; quem 
" lingua sua Sar appellant." Bo- 
chart observes, that Servius is ge- 
nerally mistaken in his Phoenician 
etymologies. He derives Sarra from 
the Hebrew name "njf Tsor, by 
which Tyre is called in the holy 
Scriptures. He thinks Servius had 
read in Trogus, that Sidon had its 
name from a fish, and, by a slip of 
his memory, had said that of Tyre, 
which he had read of Sidon : " Vir- 
*' giliivetusScholiastes scholiis suis 
*' Punica quaedam interspergit, sed 
'' pleraque pessimse notae. Tale 
" illud in lib. 2. Georg. Quce nunc 
" Tyrus dicitur, olim Sarra vocaba- 
" tur, a pisce quodam qui illic abun- 
" dai, quem lingua sua Sar appellant. 
" Verum quidem est Romanos ve- 



teres pro Tyro dixisse Sarram. 
Ita in Gellio legitur, et in Festo, 
et in Paulo : et in Fragmentis 
lE,nnu, Pcenos Sarra oriundos. Un- 
de est quod pro Tyrio poeta dixit 
Sarranum ostrum ; et Juvenalis 
SarraHa aulcEa ; et Silius, lib. 6. 
Sarranam Junonem, et Sarranam 
ccedem; et lib. J. Sarranum navi- 
tarn ; et lib. 8. Sarrana numina ; 
et lib. 9- Sarranum fiomen, et Sar- 
ranam manum; etlib. 11. Sarrana 
castra ; et lib. 15. Sarranum muri- 
cem ; et lib. 3. Sarranam Leptin ; 
et Columella Sarranam violam, id 
est purpuream, quia purpura e 
Tyro ; et fortasse apud Stepha- 
num <^oivimg TriXig 'Zd^ec, unde 
gentile llai^uvog, id ipsum erat 
Graecis quod Romanis Sarra et 
Sarranus. ILa^u saltern plurimum 
accedit ad Hebraeum ^iljf Tsar, 
quo nomine Tyrum appellant sa- 
cri Scriptores, sed piscis &ar, unde 
Sarra, si quidem Servio fides, non 
extat ullibi gentium, Et Sarrae 
nomen deduci notum est ex He- 
braeo Tyri nomine ydL Tsor ; in 
quo literam tsade, quae medii 
' est soni inter T et S Graeci in T 
mutarunt et Romani in S. Ita 
factum ut ex eodem ^IIK et Tyga^ 
nasceretur et Sarra. Sed Ser- 
vium verisimile est, cum alicubi 
legisset quod in Trogo habetur, 
Sidonem a pisce dici, titubante 
memoria id de Tyro scripsisse 
quod de Sidone legerat. Non 
' dispari errore Origenes Tyrus, 
' inquit, apud Hebrceos sonat idem 
' quod nobis venantes. Imo Tyrus 



214 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Another hides his riches, and 
broods over buried gold. An- 
other is struck with astonish- 
ment at the rostra: another 
is smitten with tiie double ap- 
plause of senators and ple- 
beians in the theatre: others 
rejoice in spilling their bro- 
ther's blood. 



Condit opes alius, defossoque incubat auro. 

Hie stupet attonitus rostris : hunc plausus hi- 

antem 
Per cuneos, geminatus 

trumque 

Corripuit : gaudent perfusi sanguine fratrum, 



enim, plebisque, pa- 
509 



" rupem sonat; sed Sidon vel a 
^' venatione vel a piscatione dici- 
'• tur." 

Indormiat.^ I follow Heinsius, 
Ruseus, and Masvicius. All the 
manuscripts whicli I have collated, 
Servius, La Cerda, Schrevelius, and 
most of the editors, read dormiat. 

538. Hie stupet attonitus rostris.'] 
This seems not to be spoken of the 
orators themselves, but of their 
hearers, who are struck with asto- 
nishment at the force of their elo- 
quence. Though the Poet may 
mean also, that this admiring of 
eloquence may stir up in them a 
vehement desire of becoming ora- 
tors. Dryden has made Virgil use 
abusive language on this occasion : 

Some patriot fools to popular praise 

aspire 
Of public speeches which worse fools 

admire. 



Mr. B- 



makes the astonishment 
relate wholly to the orator himself: 

He in the Rostrum lifts to heaven his 

eyes, 
Amaz'd, confounded, speechless with 

surprise. 

But why the orator should be af- 
fected in such a manner, I must 
own myself at a loss to compre- 
hend. Dr. Trnpp seems to under- 
stand this expression of the Poet in 
the same sense with me : 

That doats with fondness on the Ros- 
trum's fame. 

Hunc plausus, &c.] This is ge- 
nerally understood to be meant of 



dramatic Poets, who are ambitious 
of a general applause of the whole 
audience. The Patricians and Ple- 
beians had their different seats nr 
boxes in the Roman theatre, which, 
being extended from the centre to 
the circumference, wereconsequent- 
ly narrower at the centre, like so 
many wedges, whence they were 
called cunei. See the note on ver. 
381. Virgil's expression seems to 
mean the same as if we should now 
say, others are fond of a general 
applause from the pit, boxes, and 
galleries. 

509" Geminatus.'] Pierius found 
geminatus in the Roman, Medicean, 
Lombard, and other ancient manu- 
scripts. It is the same in all the 
manuscripts, which I have collated, 
and in most printed editions. Some 
read geminatur ; others gem'mantur. 
510. Gaudent perfusi sanguine 
fratrum.] In the old Nurenberg 
edition it is patrum. 

We have a passage not much 
unlike this in Lucretius; 

Sanguine civili rem conflant: divitias- 

que 
Conduplicant avidi, caedem caedi accu- 

mulantes : 
Crudeles gaudent in tristi funere fratris : 
Et consanguineum mensas odere, ti- 

mentque. 
By civil wars endeavour to get more ,• 
And, doubling murders, double their vast 

store ; 
Laugh o'er their brothers* grareSf and 

tirn'rous guests 
All hate, and dread iJieir nearest kinsmen^s 

feasts. 

Creech. 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



215 



Exilioque domos et dulcia limina mutant ; 
Atque alio patriam quaerunt sub sole jacentem. 
Agricola incurvo terram dimovit aratro : 
Hinc anni labor : hinc patriam, parvosque nc- 

potes 
Sustinet ; hinc armenta bourn, nieritosque ju-. 

vencos. 515 

Nee requies, quin aut pomis exuberet annus, 
Aut foetu pecorum, aut Cerealis mergite culmi: 
Proventuque oneret sulcos, atque horrea vincat. 
Venit hyems, teritur Sicyonia bacca trapetis, 
Glande sues laeti redunt, dant arbuta sylvge : 520 
Et varios ponit foetus autumnus, et alte 
Mitis in apricis coquitur vindemia saxis. 
Interea dulces pendent circum oscula nati : 



and change tlicir habitations 
ami dear houses for txile, and 
seek countries lying under 
anotlier sun. The husband- 
man stirs the earth with his 
crooked plough; hence the 
labour of the year, hence he 
sustains his country and small 
family ; hence his herds of 
kine, and deserving bullocks. 
Nor is there any intermission, 
but the stason abounds either 
with fruit, or young cattle, 
or sheaves of corn ; and loads 
the furrows v^iih increase; 
and bursts the barns. Win- 
ter comes; and the Sicyonian 
berry is pounded in mills, the 
swine come home full of mast, 
the woods yield arbutes; and 
autumn supplies various fruits, 
and the mild vintage is ripen- 
ed on the open hills. In the 
mean time his sweet children 
hang about his neck ; 



513. Agricola incurvo, &c.] In 
opposition to all these vexations 
and solicitudes the Poet tells us 
thehusbandnaan has only the labour 
of ploughing, which supports his 
country and his own family. And, 
to recompense his labours, there is 
no part of the year which does not 
produce something to his benefit. 
To crown all, he tells us he is happy 
in a virtuous wife and dear chil- 
dren ; he is delighted with the sight 
of his cattle; and diverts himself 
with rural sports on holy-days. 

514. Nepotes.'] La Cerda reads 
Penates. 

519. ^enit hyems.'] Mr. B 

will have hyems, in this place, not 
to signify the winter, but a storm. 
The time of gathering olives is in 
winter. Columella says the middle 
time of gathering them is the 
beginning of December: '* Media 
*' est olivitas plerumque initium 
" mensis Decembris." The same 
author places the beginning of win- 
ter on the ninth of November : 
" Quinto Idus Novembris hyemis 



" initium." Palladius places the 
making of oil under November. 

Sicyonia bacca.'^ Sicyon was a 
city of Achaia, not far from the 
Peloponnesian Isthmus. It was 
famous for olives : whence he calls 
the olive the Sicyonian berry. Thus 
Ovid : 

Quot Sicyon baccas, quot parit Hybla 
favos : 

And 

Aut ut olivifera quondam Sicyone fu- 
gato. 

Trapetisr\ The olive mill is de- 
scribed by Cato, in the twentieth 
and twenty-second chapters of his 
book of Husbandry. 

520. Arbuta.'] See the note on 
ver. 148. of the first Georgick. 

522, Apricis saxis.] See the note 
on ver. 377- 

523. Interea pendent dulces circum 
oscula nati] This seems to be put 
in opposition to those, whom he 
mentioned before to be punished 
with banishment from their fami- 
lies: 



216 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



his chaste family preserve 
their Diodesty; his cows trail 
their milky udders; and his 
fat kids butt at each other 
with their horns on the ver- 
dant gtiiss. The farmer him- 
self celebrates the festivai 
days, and extended on the 
grass, whilst the fire burns in 
the midst, and his companions 
crown the goblet, makes the 
libation, and invokes thee, O 
Leneus, and places a mark on 
an elm, for the herdsmen to 
throw their swiit javelins; and 
strips their hardy bodies, for 
wresllinjr in the rustic ring. 
This life the ancient Sabines 
formerly led, this Remus and 
his brotlier led ; thus strong 
Etrnria grew, 



Casta pudicitiam servat domus : ubera vaccae 
Lactea demittunt ; pinguesque in gramine laeto 
Inter se adversis luctantur cornibus hoedi. 526 
Ipse dies agitat festos ; fususque per herbam, 
Ignis ubi in medio, et socii cratera coronant, 
Te libans, Lenaee, vocat, pecorisque magistris 
Velocis jaculi certamina ponit in ulmo ; 530 
Corporaque agresti nudat praedura palaestra. 
Hanc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini ; 
Hanc Remus et frater: sic fortis Etruria crevit; 



Exilioque domos, et dulcia limina mu- 
tant. 

Lucretius has something like this, 
in his third book : 

At jam non domus accipiet te laeta, ne- 

que uxor 
Optima, nee dulces occurrent oscula nati 
Prseripere, et tacita pectus dulcedine 

tangent. 

524. Casta pudiciliam servat do- 
mus.'] This is opposed to the fre- 
quent adulteries, which are com- 
mitted in cities. 

525. Pinguesque.'] In one of Dr. 
Mearl's manuscripts que is left out. 

528. Cratera coronal.] This may 
be understood either of crowning 
the goblet with flowers, or filling 
it with wine to the briai. This is 
plainly meant by Virgil as a solemn 
adoration of Bacchus : but Dryden 
represents them as drinking the 
farmer's health : 

The hearth is in the midst ; the herds- 
men round 

The cheerful fire, provoke his health in 
goblets crown'd. 

531. NudaL] Pierius says it is 
nudant in the Roman, the Medi- 
cean, and other very ancient manu- 
scripts. It is nudant in the King's, 
the Bodleian, and in one of Dr. 
jMead's manuscripts: but nudat is 
more generally received. 



532. Hanc olim, &c.] Having 
shewn the advantages and delights 
of husbandry; he concludes this se- 
cond Georgick, with observing that 
this was the life which their glo- 
rious ancestors led ; that this was 
the employment of Saturn, in the 
golden age, before mankind were 
grown wicked, and had learned the 
art of war. 

Veteres Sabini.] The Sabines 
were an ancient people of Italy, 
near Rome. They were famous 
for religion anti virtue : and are 
thought by some to derive their 
name «7ro t» oiQio-^xi, from rt'orship- 
ping. Thus Pliny: "Sabini, ut 
" quidam existimavere, a religione 
" et deorum cultu Sebini appellati." 
It is customary with the Poets to 
compare a chaste, virtuous, matron, 
to the Sabine women. Thus Ho- 
race: 

Quod si pudica mulier in partem juvans 
Domum, atque dulces liberos; 

Sabina qualis, aut perusta solibus 
Pernicis uxor Appuli. 

But if a wife, more chaste than fair ^ 
Such as t/ie ancient Sabines tcerc. 
Such as the broiien Apulian dame, 
Of mocf rate face, and hoiiat fume. 

Creech. 

523. Hanc Bevius etfraier.] Ro- 
mulus and Remus, when they un- 
dertook to found their new city. 



GEOHG. LIB. II. 



^217 



Scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma, '^•"* '""* '^^^"'^ ^^^""'^ '^^ 



most glorious of things, 



Rome, were joined by a great num- 
ber of shepherds, according to Livy: 
'* Ita Numitori Albana permissa re, 
*' Romulum Remumque cupido 
*' cepit, in lis locis ubi expositi, 
" ubique educati erant, urbis con- 
*' dendae : et supererat multitudo 
*' Albanorum Latinorumque : ad id 
" pastores quoque accesserant, qui 
" omnes facile spern facerent, par- 
*' vam Albam, parvum Lavinium, 
" prse ea urbe quae conderetur fore." 
They were educated themselves 
amongst the shepherds, and were 
employed in tending the sheep, 
according to the same author: 
" Tenet fama, cumN fluitantem al- 
" veum, quo expositi erant pueri, 
*' tenuis in sicco aqua destituisset, 
"' lupam sitientem, ex montibus qui 
" circa sunt, ad puerilem vagitum 
*' cursum flexisse : earn summissas 
" infantibus adeo mitem praebuisse 
'' mammas, ut lingua lambentem 
'^ pueros magister regii pecoris in- 
'^ venerit. Faustulo fuisse nomen 
*^ferunt5 ab eo ad stabula Lau- 
*' rentise uxori educandos datos . . . 
" Cum primum adolevit aetas, nee 
" in stabulis, nee ad pecora segnes, 
" venando peragrare circa saltus, 
*' hinc robore et corporibus animis- 
" quesumto,jam non feras tantum 
" subsistere, sed in latrones praeda 
*' onustos impetum facere, pastori- 
" busque rapta dividere." 

Sic fortis Etruria crevit.'] Etru- 
ria, or Tuscany, was bounded on 
the north and west by the Apen- 
nines, by the mare inferum, or 
Tyrrhene sea, on the south, and by 
the river Tyber on the east. The 
Etrurians are said to have extended 
their dominion from the Alps to the 
Sicilian sea, whence the sea, wliich 
washes that coast of Italy, obtained 
the name of the Tyrrhene, or Tus- 
can sea. 



534!. Facta est pulcherrima Roma.] 
The ancient Romans were greatly 
addicted to husbandry, and are 
known to have had that art in the 
greatest esteem. Cato mentions, 
as an instance of this, that they 
thought they could not bestow a 
greater praise on any good man, 
than calling him a good husband- 
man : '' Et virum bonum cum lau- 
'' dabant, ita laudabant, bonum 
" Agricolam, bonumque colonum. 
" Amplissime laudari existimaba- 
" tur, qui ita laudabatur." Cicero, 
in his oration for Sextus Roscius, 
observes, that their ancestors, by 
diligently following agriculture, 
brought the Commonwealth to the 
flourishing condition in which it 
then was: " Etenim, qui praeesse 
" agro colendoflagitiumputes, pro- 
" fecto ilium Atilium, quem sua 
" manu spargentem semen, qui 
" missi erant, convenerunt, homi- 
'' nem turpissimum, atque inhones- 
" tissimura judicares. At h rcule 
" majores nostri longe aliter et de 
" illo, et de caeteris talibus viris 
" existimabant. Itaque ex mifiima, 
" tenuissimaque Republica maximam 
*' et jlorentissimam nobis reliquerunt. 
'' Suos enim agros studiose cole- 
" bant : non alienos cupide appe- 
'* tebant: quibus rebus, et agris, et 
" urbibus, et nationibus, rempub- 
" licam atque hoc imperiwji, et 
'" Populi Romani nomen auxeruntJ* 
Columella observes, that Quintius 
Cincinnatus, who was called from 
the plough to the Dictatorship, laid 
down his ensigns of authority with 
greater joy than he took them up, 
and returned to his bullocks, and 
little hereditary farm of four acres : 
that C- Fabritius, and Curius Den- 
tatus, of whom one had driven 
Pyrrhus out of Italy, and the other 
had subdued the Sabines, cultivated 
2f 



218 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



hufs^uhTS^^A^fo before Septemque una sibi muro circumdedit arces. 

the reign of the Dictaean king, a / >• , t-v ,•-!-»• 

and before the impious age Ante ctiam sceptrum Jjictaii Keffis, et ante 

feasted upon slain bullocks, , ■" _ ° 

Impia quam caesis gens est epulata juvencis, 



the seven acres, which they shared 
with the rest of the people, with a 
diligence, equal to the valour by 
which they had obtained them : 
that the true offspring of Romulus 
were hardened by rural labour, to 
bear the fatigues of war, when their 
country called for their aid j and 
that they chose their soldiers out 
of the country rather than out of 
the city : " Verum cum plurimis 
'' monumentis scriptorum admo- 
*' near, apud antiquos nostros fuisse 
" gloriae curam rusticationis, ex qua 
" Quintius Cincinnatus, obsessi 
" Consulis et exercitus liberator, ab 
'' aratro vocatus ad Dictaturam 
" venerit, ac rursus, fascibus de- 
*' positis, quos festinantius victor 
" reddiderat, quam sumpserat Im- 
" perator, ad eosdem juvencos, et 
" quatuorjugerum avitum haeredio- 
** lum redierit. Itemque C. Fabri- 
^' cius, et Curius Dentatus, alter 
'' Pyrrho finibus Italiae pulso, do- 
" mitis alter Sabinis, accepta quae 
*' viritim dividebantur captivi agri, 
'^ septem jugera non minus indus- 
" trie coluerit, quam fortiter armis 
'' quaesierat .... At mehercule vera 
" ilia Romuli proles assiduis vena- 
" tibus, nee minus agrestibus operi- 
" bus exercitata,firmissimis praeva- 
*^ luit corporibus, ac militiam belli, 
"^ cum res postulavit, facile susti- 
*' nuit, durata pacis laboribus, sem- 
•' perquerusticaraplebem praeposuit 
'' urbanae." Pliny observes that 
Italy produced a greater quantity 
of corn in former ages, which he 
ascribes to the lands being culti- 
vated by the hands of generals ; 
and ploughmen who had triumphed: 
*' Quaenam ergo tantae ubertatis 
'' causa erat? Ipsorum tunc mani- 



*' bus Imperatorumcolebantur agri, 
" ut fas est credere, gaudente terra 
'' vomere laureate, et triumphali 
" aratore : sive illi eadem cura se- 
" mina tractabant, qua bella, ea- 
'' demque diligentia arva dispone- 
" bant, qua castra : sive honestis 
'* mani bus omnia laetius proveniunt, 
" quoniam et curtosius fiunt." 

535. Septemque una sibi muro cir- 
cumdedit arcesf\ In some editions 
it is septem quce. 

'' The seven hills of Rome, which 
'* were inclosed within one wall, 
" were, the Palatinus, now Palazzo 
" maggiore; the Quirinalis, now 
" monte Cavallo ; the Coelius, now 
" monte di S. Giovanni Later ano j 
" the Capitolinus, now Campidoglio ; 
'' the Aventinus, now monte di S. 
'' Sahina ; the Esquilinus, now mon- 
'' te di S. Maria maggiore; and the 
" Viminalis ; to which seven were 
'' added the Janiculus, now Monto- 
'' rio, and the Vatican.'' Ru^us. 

5SQ, DictcEi Regis.'] Dicte is the 
name of a mountain of Crete, where 
Jupiter was educated, and on which 
a temple was built in honour of 
him. Hence the Poet calls Jupiter 
the Dictaean king. 

537. CcEsis juvencis.] In the first 
ages it was thought unlawful to slay 
their oxen, because they assisted 
mankind in tilling the ground. 
Thus Cicero : " Quid de bobus lo- 
" quar ? quibus cum terras subige- 
'^ rentur fissione glebarum, ab illo 
" aureo genere, ut Poetae loquuntur, 
" vis nunquam uUa afferebatur/' 
Varro says it was anciently made 
a capital crime to kill an ox : " Hie 
'' socius hominum in rustico opere, 
" et Cereris minister. Ab hoc an- 
'' tiqui man us ita abstineri volue- 



GEORG. LIB. II. 



219 



Aureus banc vitam in terris Saturnus agebat. 
Necdum etiam audierant inflari classica, necdum 
Impositos duris crepitare incudibus enses. 540 
Sed nos immensum spatiis confecimus aequor ; 
Et jam tempus equum fumantia solvere colla. 



golden Saturn led this life 
upon earth. They had not 
then heard the warlike sound 
of the trumpet, nor the clat- 
tering of swords upon hard 
anvils. But we have now run 
our course over a vast plain, 
and it is now time to release 
the smoking necks of our 
horses. 



" runt ut capite sanxerint, siquis 
" occidisset :" and Columella also 
says that oxen Were so esteemed 
among the ancients, that it was 
held as capital a crime to kill an 
ox, as to slay a citizen: " Cujus 
" tanta fuit apud antiquos venera- 
*' tio, ut tarn capitale esset bovem 
" necasse, quam civem." Virgil 
seems in this place to have imitated 
Aratus, who says that in the brazen 
age men first began to form the 
mischievous sword, and to eat the 
labouring oxen : 



AXX' on Jm xaKiiivot iTi9-vecfa,v, 0/ S* tycytfyr*, 
KakKtin ytvti), zf^ori^uv oXourt^ei cLv^ptSt 
Ot 'Sf^uTOi KKKei^yov i;^eiX;^iViravTo fitty^eti- 

"EhoVtm, zst^urei Ti (ioav i^dffavr a^orfi^ui. 

538. Aureus Saturnus.'] The 
golden age was fabled to have 
been under the government of Sa- 
turn. This age terminated with the 
expulsion of Saturn by Jupiter. 

541. Spatiis.'] See the note on 
book i. ver. 513. 

542. Fumantia.] Pierius says it 
is spumantia in the Roman, and 
other manuscripts. 



2f2 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 
GEORGICORUM 



LIBER TERTIUS 



J. E quoque, mafftia Pales, et te memorande, Thee also, o great Paies.wiii 

T^ tL ' o ' I sing, and thee O shepherd 

„„^^,„„^ ' memorable by Amphrysus : 

CanemUS, ye woods and rivers of Ly- 

c£ens. Other poems, which 

Pastor ab Amphryso: vos, sylvae, amnesque have employed idle minds, 

Lycaei. 
Caetera, quae vacuas tenuissent carmina mentes, 



1. Te quoqtie, &c.] The Poet, 
intending to make cattle the subject 
of his third book, unfolds his de- 
sign, by saying he will sing of 
Pales, the goddess of shepherds 3 of 
Apollo, who fed the herds of Ad- 
metus on the banks of Amphrysus ; 
and of the woods and rivers of Ly- 
caeus, a mountain of Arcadia, famous 
for sheep. He then shews a con- 
tempt of the fabulous Poems, the 
subjects of which he says are all 
trite and vulgar, and hopes to soar 
above the Greek Poets. 

Pales is the goddess of shepherds. 
The feast called Palllia, in which 
milk was offered to her, was cele- 
brated on the twentieth of April, 
on which day also Rome was 
founded by Romulus. 

2. Pastor ah Amphryso.'] Am- 
phrysus is a river of Thessaly, 
where Apollo fed the herds of 
kini^ Admetus. 

Lyco'i.'] Lycaeus is a mountain 



of Arcadia, famous for sheep, and 
sacred to Pan, being accounted one 
of his habitations. 

3. Caetera, quce vacuas tenuissent 
carmina mentes, omnia jam vulgata.'] 
" Though I do not dislike carmina, 
" yet in some manuscripts it is car- 
'* mine, in the ablative case. For 
" he does not mean that other 
^' poems are now grown common, 
'' but all other subjects, which 
" might be treated in verse, and 
'^ are the usual themes of poets. 
" What these are he immediately 
'■' recites." Pierius. 

Fulvius Ursinus observes, that 
Virgil alludes to particular authors, 
who had treated severally of these 
fables. Homer has related the fa- 
ble of Eurystheus in the eighteenth 
Iliad. The Busiris of Mnesima- 
chus is quoted in the ninth book of 
Athenaeus. Theocritus has spoken 
of Hylas; Callimachus is referred 
to in Latonia Deles, and the first 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



are now all become common. Omnia inm viilcflta 
Who js unacquainted with V^Hinia jam VUJgaia. 

durum, 
Aut illaudati nescit Busiridis aras ? 



cruel Euryslheus, or does not 
know the altars of the ex- 
ecrable Busiris! 



Quis^ aut Eurysthea 



Olympic ode of Pindar is to be un- 
derstood by the mention of Hippo- 
damia and Pelops. 

4. Omnia jam vulgata.'] In the 
Bodleian, and in one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts, it is omnia sunt vul- 
gata, 

Eurysthea durum.'] Pierius says 
some would read dirum, but durum 
is the true reading. Dr. Trapp 
however has translated these words, 
Eurystheus dire. 

Eurystheus the son of Sthenekis 
was king of Mycenae, and, at the 
instigation of Juno, imposed on 
Hercules his twelve famous labours, 
which he hoped would have over- 
powered him. 

5. Illaudati Busiridis aras,] Bu- 
siris is generally said to have been 
the son of Neptune, king of Egypt, 
and a most cruel tyrant. He used 
to sacrifice strangers, but Hercules 
overcame him, and sacrificed both 
him and his son on the same altars. 
Diodorus Siculus tells us, that this 
cruelty of Busiris was a fable in- 
vented by the Greeks, but grounded 
on a custom practised by the Egyp- 
tians of sacrificing red-haired people 
to the manes of that king, because 
Typhon, who slew him, was of that 
colour. Sir Isaac Newton makes 
Busiris to be the same with Sesac, 
Sesostris, and the great Bacchus ; 
and adds, that " the Egyptians be- 
" fore his reign called him their 
" Hero or Hercules: and after his 
" death, by reason of his great 
" works done to the river Nile, de- 
*' dicated that river to him, and 
" deified him by its names Sihor, 
" Nilus, and Egyplusj and the 
" Greeks hearing them lament 
" JSihor, Bou Sihor, called him Osi- 



'* ris and Busiris.*' The same great 
author places the end of his reign 
upon the fifth year of Asa, Q56 years 
before Christ. Eratosthenes, as he 
is quoted by Strabo, affirms not only 
that this sacrificing of strangers was 
a fable, but that there never was a 
king or tyrant named Busiris. 

In the next place let us consider 
the objection which the ancient 
grammarians have made to the use 
of the word illaudati in this place. 
Aulus Gellius tells us they said it 
was a very improper word, and not 
strong enough to express the detest- 
ation of so wicked a person, who, 
because he used to sacrifice strangers 
of all nations, was not only unwor- 
thy of praise, but ought to be de- 
tested and cursed by all mankind : 
'' Nonnulli Grammatici aetatis su- 
'^ perioris, in quibus est Cornutus 
'' Annaeus, baud sane indocti neque 
" ignobiles, qui commentaria in Vir- 
'* gilium composuerunt, .... illau- 
" dati parum idoneum esse verbum 
" dicunt, neque id satis esse ad fa- 
" ciendam scelerati hominis detes- 
" tationem : qui quod hospites om- 
'' nium gentium immolare solitus 
'' fuit, non laude indignus, sed de- 
" testatione, execrationeque totius 
'' generis humani dignus esset." 
Aulus Gellius vindicates the use of 
this word two different ways. In 
the first place he says, hardly any 
man is so profligate, as not some- 
times to do or say something which 
is praiseworthy : and therefore one 
who cannot be praised at all must 
be a most wicked wretch. He adds, 
that, as to be without blame is the 
highest pitch of virtue, so to be 
without praise is the greatest degree 
of wickedness. He proves from 



GEORG. LIB. III. 223 

Cui non dictus Hylas puer, et Latonia Delos? Ks^an^L^ry^foS?^ 



Homer, that the greatest praises 
are contained in words exclusive of 
imperfection, and therefore that a 
term which excludes praise is the 
most proper that can be found for 
blaming or censuring. He observes 
also, that Epicurus expressed the 
greatest pleasure by a privation of 
pain, and that Virgil in like man- 
ner called the Stygian lake inama- 
bilis : for as illaudalus signifies a 
privation of all praise, so inamabilis 
expresses a privation of all love. 
*' De illaudato autem duo videntur 
'' responderi posse. Unum est ejus- 
" modi ; nemo quisquam tam eiFeris 
*' est moribus, quin faciat aut dicat 
" nonnunquam aliquid quod lau- 
" dari queat. Unde hie antiquis- 
'' simus versus vice proverbii cele- 
'* bratus est, 

" itvrty. 

" sed enim qui omni in re atque 
*' omni tempore laude omni vacat, 
'' is illaudatus est : isque omnium 
*' pessimus deterrimusque est : sic- 
'' uti omnis culpae privatio incul- 
*' patum facit. Inculpatus autem 
" instar est absolutae virtutis : illau- 
*' datus igitur quoque finis est cx- 
*' tremae malitiae. Itaque Homerus 
*' non virtutibus appellandis, sed 
*' vitiis detrahendislaudareampliter 
*' solet. Hoc enIm est 



" — — Tu V oiiK cixovn Zifsriff^iiv. 

*' Et item illud, 

*' "EvS* evK av (ipt^evTx i'Saij 'Ayu/ukifivovu 
" Qy^s xuretVTaffffovTi °"^' oux IB'iXovTa 

*' Epicurus quoque simili modo 
" raaximam voluptatem detractio- 
" nem privationemque omnis dolo- 



*' ris definivit his verbis : <jga$ rev 
*' fAtyi^ovg rm «^ovai>, t) -a-ecvrog rov elx- 
" yovvrog vTrilxi^itrig. Eadem ratione 
'* idem Virgilius inamabilem dixit 
*' Stygiam paludem. Nam sicut 
** illaudatum xxret amoris a-Ts^na-tf 
" detestatus est." In the second 
place he says that laudare signified 
anciently to name; therefore illauda- 
tus or illaudabilis signifies one who 
ought not to be named, as it was 
formerly decreed by the Asiatic 
states, that none should ever name 
the man who had set fire to the 
temple of Diana at Ephesus. " Al- 
" tero modo illaudatus ita defen- 
" ditur. Laudare significat prisca 
** lingua nominare appellareque. 
" Sic in actionibus civilibus auctor 
" laudari dicitur, quod est nominari. 
'' Illaudatus enim est quasi illauda- 
" bills, qui neque mentione aut me- 
** raoria ulla dignus, neque unquam 
" nominandusest. Sicuti quondam 
" a communi consilio Asiae decre- 
" tum est, uti nomen ejus, qui 
** templum Dianae Ephesiae incen- 
" derat, ne quis uUo in tempore 
" nominaret." Some are of opinion 
that Virgil here reflects on Iso- 
crates, who composed an Oration 
in praise of Busiris. But the Ora- 
tion of Isocrates does not seem so 
much to be designed in praise of 
Busiris, as to expose one Polycrates, 
who had undertaken to praise him, 
and yet had not said any one thing 
of him, which deserved commend- 
ation. Quintilian thinks Poly- 
crates composed this Oration, ra- 
ther to shew his wit, than for any 
other purpose : " Equideni illos qui 
" contra disputarunt, non tam id 
" sensisse quod dicerent, quam ex- 
" ercere ingenia materia; diflficul- 
" tate credo voluisse; sicut Poly- 
*' cratem cum Busirim laudaret, et 
" Clytemnestram : quanquam is. 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and Hippodame, ami Pelops TTir»r»nrliiTiP>rmP 
lamous for bis ivory shoulder, J^ippiJUttllieque, 

eburno, 



bumeroque Pelops insignis 



" quod his dissimile non esset, com- 
** posuisse orationem, quae est habita 
** contra Socratem,dicitur/' There- 
fore if Virgil designed to reflect on 
any orator, it must rather have 
been on Poly crates than on Iso- 
crates. After all, I believe Virgil 
intended to express a great abhor- 
rence of the cruelties ascribed to 
Busiris, by this negative of praise, 
as he ha6 called the Stygian lake 
inamabilis in two different places. 
The first is in the fourth Georgick: 

Tardaque pains inamabilis unda. 

The other is in the sixth ^Eneid: 

— — Tristique palus inamabilis unda. 

And in the twelfth ^neid he uses 
in like manner illcetabile, to express 
the horid murmur of a distracted 
city : 

Attulit hunc illi coecis terroribus aura 
Commixtum clamorem, arrectasque im- 

pulit aures 
Confusae sonus urbis, et illcetabile mur- 
mur. 

Nor are examples of this way of 
speaking wanting among other au- 
thors. Cicero seems to be speaking 
in praise of Quintus Pompeius, when 
he calls him a not contemptible 
orator: *' Q. enim Pompeius, non 
*' contemptus orator, temporibus illis 
" fuit, qui summos honores, homo 
*' persecognitus, sineullacommen- 
''^ datione majorum est adeptus." 
Livy commends Polybius by calling 
hirn an author not to be despised : 
" Hunc regem in triumpho ductum 
" Polybius, haudquaquam spernen- 
'*^ dus auctor tradit." Longinus 
also, when he extols the sublimity 
of the style of Moses, calls him no 
vulgar author : Tetvrvi xett o rm 'loy- 



g5r£<^^ rhv rov B'iiov ^i/vxf^iy x-ocra t«v 
a|/«v lyva^iOii, Kx^iCpviViv, iv^vz h t»i iit- 
/SoAJj y^oi'^oc^ Tm vef^uv, Eiyriv o ©sej, 
(pno'i. ri i yma-^a (pZg, KXt lyhiTO. ytv- 
i<r^a y«, koi] lyiviTo. Dr. Trapp, in 
his note on this passage, justly ob- 
serves that it " is a figure of which 
*' we have frequent instances; espe- 
"^ cially in the holy Scriptures. 
" Thus Gen. xxxiv. 7. Which thing 
" ought not to be done ; speaking of 
" a great wickedness. And Rom.^ii. 
" 28. The most flagrant vices are 
" called things which are not con- 
" venient." 

6. Hylas puer.~\ Hylas was be- 
loved by Hercules, and accompa- 
nied him in the Argonautic expe- 
dition. But going to draw water 
he fell in, which gave occasion to 
the fable of his being carried away 
by the nymphs. Ke is mentioned 
in the sixth Eclogue : 

His adjungit, Hylan nautae quo fonte 

relictum 
Clamassent : ut littus Hyla, Hyla, omne 

sonaret. 

He nani'd the nymph {for -who but gods 

cou'dtell?) 
Into whose arms the lovely Hylas fell; 
Alcides wept in vain for Hylas lost, 
Hylas in vain resounds through all the 

coast. 

Lord Roscommox. 

The loss of Hylas is the subject 
of the thirteenth Idyllium of Theo- 
critus. 

Latonia Delos.'] Delos is one of 
the islands in the ^gean sea, called 
Cyclades. It is fabled that this 
island floated till Latona brought 
forth Apollo and Diana there, after 
which time it became fixed. 

7- Hippodameque humeroque Pe- 
lops insignis eburno^ acer equis.'] 
Hippodame or Hippodamia was 



GEOHG. LIB. III. 



2^5 



Acer equis ? Tentanda via est, qua me quoque £ Suy to .aise .nyjeii 

from tlie ground, nnd having; 

possim 



Tollere humo, victorque virum volitare per ora. 
Primus ego in patriam mecum, modo vita su- 



persit, 



10 



gained Ijifc victory lo be cele- 
brated in the mouths of men. 
I first of all, if my life does 
bi\t last, returning into my 
own country, 



the (laughter of CEnomaus, king; of 
Elis and Pisa. She was a princess 
of exceeding great beauty^ and had 
many lovers. But it being foretold 
by an oracle, that CEnomaus should 
be slain by Ins son-in-law, he of- 
fered his daughter to him who 
should overcome tlie king in a 
chariot-race, his own horses being 
begotten by the winds, and pro- 
digiously swift. But on the other 
side, if the unfortunate lover lost 
the race he was to be put to death. 
In this manner thirty lost their 
lives. But this did not discourage 
Pelops the son of Tantalus, who 
was greatly in love with her. He 
accepted the danH;erous conditions, 
and contended with the father. In 
this race the king's chariot broke, 
by which accident he lost his life, 
and Pelops gained the victory and 
his beauteous prize. 

Tantalus, the father of Pelops, 
had invited the gods to a banquet, 
at which, having a mind to try 
their divinity, he dressed his son, 
and set his flesh before them. All 
the gods abstained from this horrid 
food, except Ceres, who eat the 
shoulder. Jupiter afterwards re- 
stored Pelops to life, and gave him 
an ivory shoulder, instead of that 
which had been eaten. 

9- Victorque virum volitare per 
ora.'] Thus Ennius : 

Volito docta per ora virum. 

10. Primus ego in patriam, &c.] 
The Poet, having in the preceding 
paragraph expressed his contempl: 
of the fabulous subjects of the Greek 



Poets, and shewn a desire of sur- 
passing them, now proceeds to pro- 
pose to himself a subject worthy of 
his genius, not founded on fables, 
but on true history. The historical 
facts which he designs to celebrate 
are the victories of the Romans, 
under the influence of Augustus 
Caesar. He poetically describes this 
victory of his over the Greek Poets, 
by a design of building a temple to 
Augustus, on the banks of the 
Mincius, and officiating himself as 
priest. In the mean time he says 
he will proceed in the present work, 
and speak of cattle. 

This boast of Virgil, that he will 
be the first, who brings the Muses 
from Helicon into his own country, 
must be understood of Mantua, not 
of Italy in general; for this glory 
belongs to Ennius, who first wrote 
an epic Poem, after the manner of 
Homer. Thus Lucretius : 

Ennius ut noster cecinit, qui primus 

amceno 
Detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coro- 

nam 
Per gentes Italas hominum quae clara 

ciueret. 

Though perhaps our Poet might 
not think Ennius to have succeeded 
.so well, as to be thought to have 
gained the favour of the Muses j 
and therefore flattered himself that 
he might be the first Roman, who 
obtained that glory. It must not 
be omitted in this place, that Virgil 
designed a journey into Greece, a 
little before his death. This part 
therefore probably was written after 
the Georgicks were finished. 
2 G 



226 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



will bring with ine llie Muses 
from the top of the Aonian 
mountain: I first will bring 
to thee, O Mantua, the Idu- 
meau palms: and will erect 
a marble temple on the green 
plain, near the water, where 
Mincius wanders with slow 
windings, and covers the 
banks with tender reeds. In 
the midst shall Caesar stand, 
and be the god of the temple. 
In honour of him, will I, be- 
ing conqueror, and adorned 
with Tyrian purple, 



Aonio rediens deducam vertice Musas : 
Primus Idumaeas referam tibi, Mantua, palmas : 
Et viridi in campo templum de marmore ponam 
Propter aquam, tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat 
Mincius, et tenera praetexit arundine rigas. 15 
In medio mihi Coesar erit, templumque tenebit. 
lUi victor ego, et Tyrio conspectus in ostro 



11. Aonio vertice.'] Aonia was 
the name of the mountainous part 
of Boeotia, whence all Boeotia came 
to be called Aonia. In this country 
was the famous mountain Helicon, 
sacred to the Muses. 

12. Idumceas palmas.'] Idumsea, 
or the land of Edom, was famous for 
palms. He therefore uses Idumaean 
palms for palms in general, as is 
common in poetry. Palms were 
used for crowns in all the games, 
as we find in the fourth question 
of the eighth book of Plutarch's 
Symposiacs: where he enquires 
why the sacred games had each 
their peculiar crown, but the palm 
was common to all. 

In the King's manuscript it is 
Primus et Idumeas. 

16. In medio mihi Ccesar erit, 
templumque tenebit,] It was the 
custom to place the statue of that 
god, to whom the temple was de- 
dicated, in the middle of it. The 
other statues, which he mentions, 
are to adorn the temple. 

17. Illi.] " \. e, in illius honorem. 
" So in the next verse but one, mihi 
" for in meiim honorem." Dr. Trapp. 

In the Cambridge, and in one of 
the Arundelian manuscripts it is illic 
instead of illi. Pierius found the 
same reading in the Roman, Medi- 
cean, and other very ancient manu- 
scripts. He says that in the Lom- 
bard manuscript the c has been 
erased, which he greatly condemns. 
He interprets illic to mean Mantua: 



" illic, hoc est Mantuas, in patria 
'^ mea, quo primus ego Musas ab 
*' Aonia deduxero." He thinks 
however that illi may be put for 
illic, as in the second iEneid : Illi 
mea tristia facta : which the ancient 
grammarians have observed to be 
put for illic. But notwithstanding 
the opinion of these ancient gram- 
marians, I cannot but think that 
even in that passage of the ^neid 
illi signifies not there, but to him. 
Priamus had just reproached Pyr- 
rhus, as being of a less generous 
teaiper than his father Achilles : to 
which Pyrrhus replies : " Then 
" you shall go on this errand to 
" my father Achilles ; and be sure 
" you tell him of my sad actions, 
" and how Pyrrhus degenerates 
'' from him : 

" • Beferes ergo haec, et nuncius ibis 

" Pelidae genitori : illi mea tristia facta, 
" Degeneretnque Neoptolemum narrare 
" memento." 

Surely illi relates to Achilles, tell 
him of my sad actions, not tell there 
my sad actions, for no place has 
been mentioned. 

Tyrio conspectus in ostro.] Those 
who oflFered sacrifice, amongst the 
Romans, on account of any victory, 
were clothed in the Tyrian colour. 
It is not certain what colour this 
was. Some call it purple, and others 
scarlet. Perhaps it was a deep 
crimson ; for human blood is com- 
monly called purple by the Poets. 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



227 



Centum quadrijugos agitabo ad flumina currus. ^£Lu aS'The SvenTor 

„..-, ,. - ^- me all Greece shall leave A I- 

Cuncta mini, Alpheum Imquens, lucosque Mo- fo^j-Xramf^contofd '-^ ?!°' 

1 „„i • ning, and with the hard 

lorcni, capitis. 

Cursibus, et crudo decernet Graecia caestu. 20 



18. Centum quadrijug-os agitabo ab 
Jiumina currus.] Varro, as he is 
quoted by Servius, tells us, that 
in the Circensian games, it was 
anciently the custom to send out 
twenty-five missus or matches of 
chariots in a day, and that each 
match consisted of four chariots: 
that tile twenty-fifth match was set 
out at the charge of the people, by 
a collection made amongst them, 
and was therefore called cerarius: 
and that when this custom was laid 
aside, the last match still retained 
the name of cerarius. It is likewise 
to the ancient custom of celebrating 
these games on the banks of rivers, 
that the Poet alludes by the words 
adjlumina. 

19. Cunctamihi, Alpheum linquens, 
lucosque Molorchi.'] The Poet here 
prophesies that the games which 
he shall institute, in honour of 
Augustus, will be so famous, that 
the Greeks will come to them, and 
forsake their own Olympic and Ne- 
mesean games. 

Alpheus is the name of a river of 
Peloponnesus, arising in Arcadia, 
passing through the country of Elis, 
and falling into the sea below the 
city Olympia, which was famous 
for the Olympic games, instituted 
by Hercules in honour of Jupiter. 
The victors at these games were 
crowned with wild olive. 

Molorchus was a shepherd of 
Cleone, a town in Peloponnesus, 
between Corinth and Argos, near 
Mantinea. Hercules having been 
hospitably received by this shep- 
herd, in gratitude slewthe Nemeaean 
orCleonean lion, which infested that 



country ; and the Nemeaean games 
were therefore instituted in honour 
of Hercules. The victors were 
crowned with parsley, or perhaps 
smallage, a-lxmv. 

20. Cursibus.] Running was one 
of the five Olympic games, called 
the Pentathlum. The others were 
wrestling, leaping, throwing the 
quoit, and fighting with the ccestus. 

Decernet.] Pierius says it is de- 
certet in the Lombard, and some 
other manuscripts. I find decertet 
in the King's, one of the Arunde- 
lian, in both Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts, and in some old printed 
copies. 

Castu.] The ccestus was com- 
posed of leathern thongs fastened to 
the hands, and filled with lead and 
iron, to add force and weight to the 
blow. Thus Theocritus : 

JLatrropex, xa) (po^ipov HoXv^ivxsK -rv^ l^i^i- 
Xsr^fltf l!r/^sy|«vTa fiiffots fioioKTiv tf^da'tv 

0/ Vy I'Tii eZv tr^ei^uiffiv ixa^ruvavro P>oiiats 
ILiT^as, xai zift^i yvTa (/.ax^evs ilXt^av Iftecv- 

ras 
'Ej (/.zffffov cuvayoVf (pivov aXXdXoKTi zfnov- 

ris. 

And Virgil, in his fifth .Eneid ; 

Tantorum ingentia septem 

Terga bourn plumbo insiito, ferroque ri- 
gebant. 

Turn satus Anchisa caestus pater extulit 

aequos, 
Et paribus palmas amborum innexuit 

armis. 

Those who desire to know the man- 
ner of fighting with this weapon, 
2 o 2 



2^ 



P. VIRGILTI MARONIS 



1 myself, having my head 
adorned with leaves of the 
shorn olive, will bring pre- 
sents. Even now I rejoice to 
lead the solemn pomps to the 
temple, and to see the oxen 
slain: or how the scene shifts 
•with a changing face, and 
how the interwoven Britons 
lift np the purple tapestrj'. 
On the doors will I describe 
the battle of the Gangarides, 
and the arms of conanering 
Romnlus, in gold and solid 
ivory : 



Ipse caput tonsae foliis omatus olivae 
Dona feram. Jam nunc solemnes ducere pompas 
Ad delubra juvat, caesosque videre juvencos : 
Vel scena ut versis discedat frontibus ; utque 
Purpurea intexti toUant aulaea Britanni. 25 
In foribus pugnam ex auro solidoque elephanto 
Gangaridum faciam, victorisque arm a Quirini : 



may find it described at large, in 
the twenty-second Idyllium of The- 
ocritus, and in the fifth ^neid. 

21. OUvcE.'] Olivce seems to be 
put here for the wild olive, with 
which the victors at the Olympic 
games used to be crowned. 

22. Solemnes ducere pompas.] The 
pomps were images of the gods, 
carried in procession to the circus. 
Thus Ovid : 

Sed jam pompa venit : linguis animisque 
favete. 
Tempus adest plausus : aurea pompa 
venit. 
Prima loco fertur passis Victoria pennis : 
Hue ades ; et meus hie fac, Dea, vineat 
amor, 
Plaudite Neptuno, nimium qui credifis 
undis: 
Nil mihi cum pelago : me mea terra 
capit. 
Plaude tuo, miles, Marti : nos odimus 
arma. 
Paxjuvat,et media pace repertus amor. 
Auguribus Phcebus : PhcEbe venantibus 
adsit ; 
Artifices in te verte, Minerva, manus. 
Ruricolse Cereri, teneroque adsurgite 
Baccho : 
Pollucetn pugiles : Camera practet cques. 
Nos tibi, blanda Venus, puerisque po- 
tentibus arcu 
Plaudimus : ineeptis annue,Diva,meis. 

25. Purpurea intexti tollanl aulcea 
Britanni.'] This is understood by 
some to mean, that real Britons 
held up the tapestry in which the 
figures of their countrymen were 
interwoven- Thus May: 

Or how the Britaines raise 



That purple curtaine which themselves 
displaies. 



Dryden understands it only of Bri- 
tish figures, which seem to hold 
it up: 

Which interwoven Britons seem to raise. 
And shew the triumph which their shame 
displays. 

And Dr. Trapp : 

And how th' inwoven Britons there suj>- 

port 
The purple figur'd tapestry they grace. 

27- Gangaridum.'] The Ganga- 
rides were Indians living near the 
Ganges. These people were not 
subdued at the time, when Virgil 
wrote his Georgicks. Catrou justly 
observes, that Virgil must have 
added this and the preceding verse 
long after he had first published 
the Georgicks. This whole alle- 
gory of the temple seems to have 
been added by the Poet in the year 
of Rome 734, when history informs 
us, that Augustus subdued the In- 
dians, and the Parthians, and re- 
covered the eagles which had been 
lost by Crassus. This was the year 
before the death of Virgil : whence 
we may observe, that he continued 
to correct and improve this noble 
Poem, till the time of his death. 

Victorisque arma Quirini.] Ruaeus 
allows that it was debated in the 
Senate, whether Augustus or Ro- 
mulus should be the name of him, 
who before was called Octavianus. 
But he observes that this happenetl 
in the year of Rome 727, three 
years after the publication of the 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



229 



Atque hie undantem bello, magnumque fluen- 

tem 
Nilum, ac navali surgentes aere columnas. 
Addam urbes Asiae domitas, pulsumque Nipha- 

ten, 30 

Fidentemque fuga Parthum, versisque sagittis, 
Et duo rapta manu diverse ex hoste trophaea ; 



and here will I represent the 
]Sille waving with war, and 
greatly flowing, and cohimns 
rising with naval brass. I 
will add the conquered cities 
of Asia, and subdued Ni- 
phates, and the Parthian trust- 
ing in flight, and in arrows 
shot backward: and the two 
trophies snatched with his 
own hand from two different 
enemies: 



Georgicks. Hence he concludes 
that it was a private flattery of 
Virgil, and had no relation to what 
was debated in the Senate. But if 
we agree with Catrou, that this 
verse was inserted in the year 734> 
we can have no doubt, but that Vir- 
gil alluded to the debate already 
mentioned. 

28. Undantetii bello, magnumque 
Jiuentem Nilum.'] This relates to 
the victory obtained over the Egyp- 
tians and their allies, commanded 
by Anthony and Cleopatra, in the 
year of Rome 724, 

29. Navali surgentes cere colum- 
nas.] Servius tells us, that Augus- 
tus, having conquered all Egypt, 
took abundance of beaks of ships, 
and made four columns of them, 
which were afterwards placed by 
Domitian in the Capitol, and were 
to be seen in his time. 

SO. Pulsumque Niphaten.] Ni- 
phates is the name of a mountain 
and river of Armenia. The people 
of this country were subdued after 
the decree of the Senate, by which 
the name Augustus was given to 
Octavianus: for Horace mentions 
this as a new victory, and at the 
same time gives him the name of 
Augustus : 



Potius nova 



Cantemus August! trophaea 
Caesaris, et rigidum Niphaten, 

Medumque flumen gentibus additum 
Victis, minores volvere vortices. 

31. Fidentemque fuga Parthum, 



versisque sagiitis.] The Parthians 
used to fly from their enemies, and 
at the same time to shoot their ar- 
rows behind them. Thus Ovid : 

Tergaque Parthorum, Homanaque pec- 

tora dicarn ; 
Telaque, ab averso quae jacit hostis equo. 
Quid fugis ut vincas ; quid victo, Parthe 

relinques ? 

The manner of the Parthians fight- 
ing is excellently described by Mil- 
ton : 



Now the Parthian king 



In Ctesiphon hath gathered all his host 
Against the Scythian, whose incursions 

, wild 
Have wasted Sogdiana ; to her aid 
He marches now in haste; see, though 

from far. 
His thousands, in what martial equipage 
They issue forth, steel bows, and shafts 

their arms : 
Of equal dread \xi flight, or in pursuit ; 
All horsemen, in which fight th6y most 

excel. 



He saw them in their forms of battle 
rang'd. 

How quick they wheePd, and flying he- 
hind them shot 
• Sharp sleet of arrowy show'r against the 
face 

Of their pursuers, and overcame by 
flight. 

32. Duo rapta manu diverso ex 
hoste trophcear] Servius will have 
this to mean the Gangarides in the 
east, and the Britons in the west : 
but it does not appear from history 
that Augustus ever triumphed over 
the Britons, or even made war 
upon them. La Cerda proposes 



230 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and the nations twice tri- 
umphed overfrom both shores. 
There shall stand also the sta- 
tues breathing in Parian mar- 
ble, the offspring of Assaracus, 
and the name of the race de- 
scended from Jupiter, 



Bisque, triumphatas utroque ab littore gentes. 
Stabunt et Parii lapides, spirantia signa, 
Assaraci proles, demissaeque ab Jove gentis 35 



another interpretation. He ob- 
serves, that rapta manu expresses 
Augustus Caesar's having obtained 
these victories in person. Now it 
appears from Suetonius, that he 
managed only two foreign wars in 
person, the Dalmatian and the 
Cantabrian : ** Externa bella duo 
*' omnino per se gessit, Dalmati- 
** cum adolescens adhuc, et, Anto- 
*' nio devicto, Cantabricum, Re- 
*' liqua per legatos administravit." 
Ruseus understands the Poet to 
speak of the two victories obtained 
over Anthony, the first at Actium, 
a promontory of Epirus, on the 
European shore : the other at Alex- 
andria, on the African shore ; and 
that this is meant by utroque ab 
littore, in the next verse. Catrou 
thinks this solution of Ruseus a 
very judicious one : but yet he 
thinks he can give a more solid 
explication of this passage, from 
Dion Cassius. This author relates 
that Augustus made war twice on 
the Cantabrians, and on the Astu- 
rians, and twice in Asia. He went 
in person against the Spaniards 
the first time they revolted, and 
they were subdued the second time 
by his lieutenant Carisius. He 
twice subdued the Parthians, and 
both times commanded his armies in 
person. Here, says Catrou, are the 
two trophies obtained by the hand 
of Augustus, making war in person 
on two different nations, the Spani- 
ards and the Parthians. 

33, Bisque triumphatas utroque ab 
littore gentes.~\ In several of the 
old printed editions it is a instead 
of ab. 

Servius, Ruaeus, and Catrou, un- 



derstand this to relate to the vic- 
tories mentioned in the preceding 
verse. La Cerda thinks the Poet 
here introduces another picture ; 
and proposes to paint the triumphs 
of Csesar, after he had made an 
universal peace. The two shores 
therefore mean the whole extent 
of the Roman dominions, from 
east to west. 

34. Parii lapidesr\ Paros is an 
island in the iEgean sea, famous 
for the finest marble. Hence, in the 
third iEneid, he calls this Island the 
snow-white Paros, *' niveamque Pa- 
^' ron." 

3^. Assaraci proles, demisscBque ab 
Jove gentis nomina.'] Here he com- 
pliments Augustus, with adorning 
his temple with the statues of the 
Trojan ancestors, from whom he 
was fond of being thought to have 
descended. The genealogy of this 
family, according to Homer, from 
Jupiter to -^Eneas is thus : 

Jupiter 

I 

Dardanus 

I 

Ericthonius 

I 

Tros 

I 



llus Assaracus Ganymedes 



Laomedon 



Capys 

I 

Anchises — Venus 

i 

^neas 



TjtboDus Priamus Lainpns Clytion Hicetaon 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



231 



Nomina, Trosque parens, et Trojae Cynthius «h"trth?V«'l"Xv\"?fi;: 

Detested envy shall fear the 
aUCtor. furies, and the dismal river 

Cocytus, and the twisted 

Invidia infelix Furias, amnemque severum ["I'^Xdl'aS'theVv'r^oS: 

, . ing stone. 

Cocyti metuet, tortosque Ixionis angues, 
Immanemque rotam; et non exuperabile saxum. 



Zsvs, 
Krifffi Ti AafSavijjy, Wi) ou^u"Wto? t^h 

•ruv, 
'AXX' 'iff v'Ttti^iias uxiov ^okvTi^uxov "iSjjj 
Au^ecvos ecu rixiff vihv 'E^t^Smov Buffikm. 

T^uas 3' au r^iTs ^uihis ufivfjcom l^iyivovro, 
Ikes T, 'AfffK^axos rt, xeii avrihos Tavu- 

"Oj ^h xdkkufTos yiViTo hviruv avS^u^m. 
"thv xa) a,vYi^tl-^a.vro hot Ail' oUo^aivav. 
K«XXe0; uviKU 010, 'Iv aSavaronri f^trtin. 
^Ikos S* av r'txiff vibv kft,xtfjua\a. \aofjt.i^ovroi, 
Aaofiti^tuv V ci^a liduvhv Tixtro, Upiuf^cov re, 

AoifiTOV T£, KkVriOV ff, 'iXiTBiOVK T O^OV 

"A^yies. 
' A.ffffei^uxoi Ti Kei^vv, o S* ag' 'Ay^i<r>jv rixt 

hhrag 'ifA 'Ay^tffm, n^iec/nof S' 'inx' "Ex- 
To^a oTov. 

The son of ^neas was called Asca- 
nius, or lulus, from whence the 
Julian family derived their name. 

36. Trojce Cynihius auctorr\ A- 
pollo was born in Delos, where is 
the mountain Cynthus. He is said 
to have built Troy, in the reign of 
Laomedon. In the sixth ^neid 
he calls Dardanus the founder of 
Troy: 

Ilusque, Assaracusque, et Troja Darda^ 
nus anctor. 

And in the eighth: 

DardanuSf Iliacce primus pater urlis et 
auctor. 

37. Invidia infelix, &c.] Servius 
seems to understand the Poet's 
meaning to be, that he will write 
such great things as to deserve 



envy; but at the same time that 
the envious shall forbear detract- 
ing, for fear of punishment in the 
other world. I rather believe with 
La Cerda and others, that he speaks 
of those who envy the glories of 
Augustus Csesar, of whom there 
must have been many at that time 
in Rome. 

This and the two following verses 
are wanting in one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts, 

38. Cocyti.^ Cocytus is the name 
of one of the five rivers of hell. 

Tortosque Ixionis angues, imma' 
nemque rotam.'] Ixion attempted to 
violate Juno, for which crime he 
was cast into hell, and bound, with 
twisted snakes, to a wheel which is 
continually turning. 

Pierius says it is orbes in the Ro- 
man manuscript, instead of angues: 
but this reading would be a tauto- 
logy, for the wheel is mentioned in 
the very next verse. 

39. Non exuperabile saxmn."] Si- 
syphus infested Attica with robbe- 
ries, for which he was slain by 
Theseus, and condemned in hell 
to roll a stone to the top of a hill, 
which always turns back again, be- 
fore it reaches the top. This punish- 
ment of Sisyphus is beautifully 
described by Homer : 



K 



fAiv '^itv(pov iltriitov x^ari^' eikyi 

'i^ovra, 
Aaav ficiO'TCi^ov-ra -nka^iov afi^oTipria-dv. 
"^Kroi fjbhy <rx>}^i7rrofAivos ;^sgo'<» re rofflv 

«> 
Aa«y &va uhifxi ^ort ko<por «XX' on (Akkot 
"Ax^ov uTTi^SoikiuVf roT a'^roirT^iii'oifKi 

x^etrnits. 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



In the mean while, let us pui- 
sne the untouched woods and 
lawns, the hard task which 
you, Maecenas, have com- 
manded nie to undertake. 
"Without thee my mind b»gins 
nothing that is lofty; be?in 
then, break slow delays; Cj'- 
thaeron calls with loud cla- 
mours, and the dogs of Tay- 
getus, and Epidaurus the 
tamer of horses, and the voice 
doubled by the assenting wood 
re-echoes. But afterwards I 
will attempt to sing the ar- 
dent fights of 



Interea Dryadum sylvas, saltusque sequamur 
Iiitactos, tua, Maecenas, baud mollia jussa. 41 
Te sine nil altum mens inchoat : en age segnes 
Rumpe moras: vocat ingenti clamore Cythaeron, 
Taygetique canes, domitrixque Epidaurus equo- 

rum: 
Et vox assensu nemorum ingeminata remugit. 45 
Mox tamen ardentes accingar dicere pugnas 



AvTis %<tura <ffii»vhi xukivSero XZas avat- 
Ahra,^ oy a-\p uffoafKi nraivo/jdves' xetrec, 
"Efpi6v Ik ftiksuv, xovivt V l» x^etros i^u^u. 

I turn'd my eye, and, as I turned, sur- 
vey* d 

A mournful vision ! the Sisyphyan shade; 

With many a weary step, and many a 
groan. 

Up the high hill he heaves a huge round 
stone : 

The huge round stone, resulting with a 
bound. 

Thunders impetuous down, and smokes 
along the ground. 

Again the restless orb his toil renews. 

Dust mounts in clouds, and sweat de- 
scends in dews. 

Mk. Pope. 

43. Vocat ingenti clamore CythoB>- 
ron.'] Virgil poetically expresses 
his earnestness to engage in the 
subject of the present book, by say- 
ing he is loudly called upon by the 
places famous for the cattle of which 
he intends to treat. 

Cythaeron is a mountain of Boeo- 
tia, a country famous for cattle. 
Servius says it is a part of Par- 
nassus, from which however it is 
thirty miles distant. 

44. Taygetique canesJ] See book 
il. ver. 488. This mountain was 
famous for hunting. 

Domitrixque Epidaurus equorum.^ 
Servius places Epidaurus in Epirus ; 
for which he has been censured by 
several authors, who place it in Pe- 
loponnesus. But La Cerda vindi- 



cates Servius, and observes that 
there was an Epidaurus also in 
Epirus ; which he takes to be the 
place designed by the Poet, because 
he has celebrated Epirus, in other 
passages, as breeding fine horses : 

Et patriam Epirum referat : 

And 

Eliadum palmas Epirus equarum. 

Ruaeus contends that the Pelopon- 
nesiaii Epidaurus is here meant, 
and affirms that ail Argia, of which 
Epidaurus was a city, was famous 
for horses. He confirms this by a 
line in this very Georgick, of which 
La Cerda has quoted but the half 
part, where Mycense, a city also of 
Argia, is celebrated equally with 
Epirus ; 

Et patriam Epirum referat, fortesque 
Mycenas. 

I am persuaded that Ruaeus is in 
the right, by a passage in Strabo, 
where he says Epidaurus is famous 
for hordes: 'A^x.etdix 5' la-rif h (azo-u 

Tjjj HiXoTcovvyiffov BoG-Kii^xtri S' 

iiTt vef^ccf ^eC'^iMTg, xxi fid,Xi<rrx ovoig, xxt 
'iTCTcaiq ro7q tTrTTolixroiii. Etrrt dl xxi to 
y'lvog lav 'iTTTrav cl^ittcv to 'A^xocoixov, »«- 
^«eVeg xcit ro 'AgyoA<«oy, xxi ro *Ez-i^ecv- 
^lov. Strabo cannot well be under- 
stood to speak in this place of any 
other, than the Peloponnesian Epi- 
daurus. 

46. Mox tamen ardentes accingar, 
&c.] In the King's manuscript it 
is etiam instead of tamen. 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



233 



Caesaris, et nomen fama tot ferre per annos, 



Caesar, and to transmit the 

glory of bis name through a> 

... many years as Caesar is dig- 

Tithoni prima quot abest ab origine Caesar. 48 SJ^^ulnpL^^^ 
Seu quis Olympiacse miratus praemia palmae, °^ *'**' Olympian paim 



Here he is generally understood 
to mean, that he intends, as soon 
as he has finished the Georgicks, 
to describe the wars of Augustus, 
under the character of ^neas. Mr. 

B is quite of another opinion : 

*' This passage," he says, " the 
" commentators understand of the 
*' ^neid ; but it is plainly meant 
" of the fourth Georgick. 'J'here 
" he describes the ardentes pugnas, 
" the civil wars betwixt the same 
" people for the sake of rival kings. 
*' In this sense the passage is very 
" sublime, to pri)mise to introduce 
'' such a matter in talking of bees j 
" but in one poem to promise an- 
" other is low, and unworthy of 
*' Virgil, and what never entered 
** into his imagination." But 

surely Mr. B must be mistaken 

in this piece of criticism, for the 
whole introduction to this Georgick 
is a prelude to the -dineid : and I 
do not see how the fights of the 
bees can be understood to be a 
description of the wars of Caesar 3 
which the Poet expressly says he 
designs to sing. 

48. Tithoni prima quot abest ab 
origine CcEsar."] Servius interprets 
this passage, that the fame of Au- 
gustus shall last as many years, as 
were from the beginning of the 
world to his time. He thinks Ti- 
thonus is put for the sun, that is, 
for Tithan. Others understand 
the Poet to mean that the fame of 
Augustus shall last as many years, 
as were from Tithonus, the son of 
Laomedon, to Augustus. But to 
this is objected, that this is too 
small a duration for the Poet to 
promise, being no more than a 



thousand years. And indeed the 
fame of Virgil's Poem, and of Au- 
gustus, has lasted much longer al- 
ready. Servius seems to have no 
authority for makmg Tithonus sig- 
nify the sun : nor can we imagine 
Virgil means the sun, unless we 
suppose Tithoni to be an erroneous 
reading for Titani, or Titan'is. But 
I do not know that so much as 
one manuscript countenances this 
alteration. It must therefore be 
Tithonus, the son of Laomedon, 
and elder brother of Priamus, that 
is meant. I must own it seems 
something strange that he should 
choose to mention Tithonus, from 
whom Augustus was not descended, 
when Anchises or Assaracus would 
have stood as well in the verse. I be- 
lieve the true reason of this choice 
was, that Tithonus was the most 
famous of all the Dardan family. 
It is said that Aurora fell in love 
with this Tithonus, and carried him 
in her chariot into Etinopia, where 
she had Memnon by him. As for 
the short space of tinie between the 
ages of Tithonus and Augustus, it 
may be observed that the Poet does 
not say as many years as Ccesar is 
distant from Tithonus, but as many 
years as Ccesar is distant from the 
first origin of Tithonus, that is, from 
Jupiter, the author of the Dardan 
race, which is going as far back as 
the Poet well could. 

4.9. Seu quis, &c.] Here the 
Poet enters upon the subject of 
this book ; and in the first place 
describes the marks of a good cow. 

OlympiaccE palmce.'] The Olympic 
games were thought the most ho- 
nourable : and the victors carried 

2 H 



234 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



breeds horses, or if any one 
breeds strong bullocks tor the 
plough, let Mm chiefly con- 
sider the bodies of the mothers. 
The best form for a cow is 
to have a roDfi;h look, a great 
bead, a long brawny neck, 
and dewlaps hanging down 
from her chin to her very 
knees. Her side should be 
exceeding long: all her parts 
large: her feet also, and her 
ears should be hairy, under 
her crooked horns. 



Pascit equos ; seu quis fortes ad aratra ju- 

vencos ; 50 

Corpora prsecipue matrum legat. Optima torvae 

Forma bovis, cui turpe caput, cui plurima 

cervix, 
Et crurum tenus a mento palearia pendent. 
Tum longo nullus lateri modus: omnia magna: 
Pes etiam, et camuris hirtae sub comibus aures. 



palms in their hands, which was 
esteemed the noblest trophy of their 
victory. Thus Horace : 

Sunt quos curriculo pulverem Olympi- 

cum 
Collegisse juvat, metaque fervidis 
Evitata roti?, palmaque nobilis. 

50. Pascit equos.'\ The ancients 
were exceedingly curious in breed- 
ing horses for the Olympic games : 
and it was thought a great com- 
mendation to excel in that skill. 

51. Optima torvcE formcE bovis.'] 
Pliny says they are not to be de- 
spised for having an unsightly look : 
*' Non degeneres existimandi etiam 
" minus laudato aspectu:" and Co- 
lumella says the strongest cattle 
for labour are unsightly j *^^ Apen- 
'' ninus durissimos, omnemque 
"^ difficultatem tolerantes, nee ab 
*' aspectu decoros." 

52. Turpe caput.'] Fulvius Ursi- 
nus obser\TS that Homer has used 
uvxi^icc for great. Servius says turpe 
signifies great. Grimoaldus also in- 
terprets it magnum et grande caput. 
May translates turpe caput also great 
head. Ruaeus interprets it deforme 
propter magnitudinem. Dryden has 
sour headed; and Dr. Trapp, 

Her head unshap'd and large. 



The prose writers recommend the 
largeness of a cow's forehead. 
Thus Varro, latis frontihus • and 
Columella, frontihus latissimis: and 



Palladius, alia fronte, oculis nigris 
et grandihus. 

Plurima cervix.'] Plurima signi- 
fies much or plentiful, that is^ in 
this place, long and large. See the 
note on plurima, ver. 187- of the 
first Georgick. Varro says cervici- 
bus crassis ac longis. 

53. Crurum tenus a menio palea- 
ria pendent.] The low hanging of 
the dewlaps is mentioned also by 
the prose writers. Thus Varro, 
a colln palearibus demissis : and Co- 
lumella, palearibus et caudis am- 
plissimis : and Palladius, palearibus 
et caudis maximis. Dryden, instead 
of knees, has thighs, which I believe 
are understood to belong only to 
the hinder legs : 

Her double dew-lap from her chin de- 
scends : 

And at her thighs the pond'rous burden 
ends. 

54. Longo nullus lateri modus: 
omnia magna.] This length of the 
body and largeness of all the limbs 
is commended also by Varro ; " Ut 
" sint bene compositas, ut integris 
'' membris oblongse, amplae . . . 
*' corpore amplo, bene costatos, la- 
'* tis humeris, bonis clunibus:" and 
by Columella J '' Vaccae quoque 
*' probantur altissimae formae lon- 
'' gaeque, maximis uteris." 

5b. Pes etiam, et camuris hirtce 
sub comibus aures.] It has been 
generally understood that the Poet 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



235 



Nee mihi displiceat raaculis insignis et albo, 56 s'JoaeTJitStSr.' if''she'rS 

fuses the yoke, and is some- 

Aut juga detrectans, interdumque aspera cornu, t'^es unlucky wuii her hom, 



means the foot should be large 
and the verses are pointed thus : 



Omnia magna 



Pes etiam : et camuris hirtae sub corni- 
bus aures. 

Thus May translates: 

All must be great : yea even her feet, 

her eare 
Under her crooked homes must rough 

appeare : 

And Dryden : 

Rough are her ears, and broad her horny 
feet. 

And Dr, Trapp: 



All parts huge; 



Her feet too ; and beneath her crankled 

horns 
Her ears uncouth and rough. 

But La Cerda justly observes that 
Virgil, who follows Varro in all 
the other parts of this description, 
is not to be supposed absolutely to 
contradict him in this one particu- 
lar. Besides, no one writer speaks 
of broad feet as any excellence in 
a cow J and indeed the smallness 
of this creature's foot, in proportion 
to the bulk of her whole body, is a 
great advantage in treading in a 
deep soil. Varro says expressly the 
foot must not be broad: " Pedibus 
" non latis, neque ingredientibus 
" qui displodantur, nee cujus un- 
" gulae divaricent, et cujus ungues 
'^ sint leves et pares." And Co- 
lumella says, " Ungulis modicis, et 
" modicis cruribus." 

The hairiness of the ears is men- 
tioned by the other authors. Varro 
and Columella say pilosis auribus. 
Palladius says the ears should be 
bristly : aure setosa. 



56. Maculis insignis et albo.'] Some 
take this to signify a white cow 
spotted with other colours; but 
the best commentators understand 
these words to mean a cow spotted 
with white. May has translated 
this passage : 

I like the colour spotted, partly white. 

Dryden has. 

Her colour shining black, but fleck'dwith 
white. 

Dr. Trapp translates it. 



Nor shall her form 



Be disapproved, whose skin with spots of 

white 
Is vary'd. 

Varro gives the first place to a 
black cow, the second to a red one, 
the third to a dun, the fourth to a 
white: " Colore potissimum nigro, 
" dein rubeo, tertio heluo, quarto 
** albo ; moUissimus enim hie, ut 
*' durissimus primus." He says also 
the red is better than the dun, 
but either of them is better than 
black and white ; that is, as I take 
it, a mixture of black and white : 
" De mediis duobus prior quam 
" posterior melior, utrique pluris 
*' quam nigri et albi." Columella 
says the best colour is re<:l or brown: 
" Colore rubeo vel fusco." Virgil's 
meaning seems to be, that though 
white is not esteemed the best 
colour, yet he does not disapprove 
a cow that has some white spots 
in her. 

57. Detrectans.'] Pierius says it 
is detractans in the Roman, the 
Medicean, and in most of the an- 
cient manuscripts. I find detractans 
in the King's and in both Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts. 
2 h2 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and resembles a bull; and if 
she is tall, and sweeps the 
ground with her tail, as she 



goes along. The proper age 
for love, and just conniibials, 
begins after four years, and 



ends before ten. The rest of 
their time is neither fit for 
breeding, nor strong enough 



for the plough. In the mean 

vhilst yoi 
the flower of youth, let loose 



time, whilst your herds are in 



the males: be early to give 
your cattle the enjoyment of 
love, 



Et faciem tauro propior; quaeque ardua tota, 
Et gradiens ima verrit vestigia cauda. 
Mtsis Lucinam, justosque pati Hymenaeos 60 
Desinit ante decern, post quatuor incipit annos: 
Caetera nee foeturae habilis, nee fortis aratris. 
Interea, superat gregibus dum laeta juventas, 
Solve mares: mitte in Venerem pecuaria primus, 



58. Quceque ardua iota.'] Thus 
Columella; '' Vaccae quoque pro- 
*' bantur altissimae formae :" and 
Palladius ; " Sed eligernus forma 
'* altissima." 

59. Et gradiens ima verrit vestigia 
Cauda,'] The length of the tail is 
mentioned by Varro ; " Caudam 
*' profusam usque ad calces :" and 
by Columella J *' Caudis amplissi- 
" mis:" and by Palladius J " Caudis 
'' maximis." 

61. Desinit ante decern, post qua- 
tuor incipit annos^ Varro says it 
is better for the cow not to admit 
the bull till she is four years old; 
and that they are fruitful till ten, 
and sometimes longer: '^ Non 
" minores oportet inire bimas, ut 
*' trimoe pariant, eo melius si qua- 
" drimae. Pleraeque pariunt, in 
" decern annos, quaedam etiam in 
*^ plures." Columella says they 
are not fit for breeding after ten, 
nor before two : " Cum excesserint 
'' annos decem, foetibus inutiles 
" sunt. Rursus minores bimis iniri 
" non oportet. Si ante tamen con- 
*' ceperint, partum earum removeri 
*' placet, ac per triduum, ne la- 
" borent, ubera exprimi, postea 
" mulctra prohiberi." Palladius 
says they breed from three to ten: 
*' iEtatis maxime tiimae, quia usque 
*' addecennium foeturaex his proce- 
*' det utilior. Nee ante aetatem tri- 
*' mam tauros his oportet admitti." 

63, Superat gregibus dum Iceta ju- 



ventas, solve mares,'] Pierius says 
it is juventas in the Medicean, and 
in most of the ancient manuscripts. 
The common reading is juventus. 

Servius takes this passage to 
relate to the females ; but the Poet 
speaks here of putting them early 
to breed, whereas he had before 
said that a cow should not breed 
before she was four years old, 
which is rather a later age than 
is generally prescribed. 1 take the 
Iceia juventas, and the mitle in Ve- 
nerem pecuaria primus to relate to 
the males, which he would have 
early admitted to the females. Pal- 
ladius says the bulls should be 
very young, and gives the marks 
of such as are good : " Nunc tauros 
" quoque, qui bus cordi est armenta 
'' construere, comparabit, aut his 
" signis a tenera setate summittet. 
" Uc sint alti, atque ingentibu? 
*' membris, aetatis mediae, et magis 
" quae juventute minor est, quam 
*' quae declinet in senium. Torva 
'* facie, parvis cornibus, torosa, 
" vastaque cervice, ventre sub- 
" stricto." Columella says a bull 
ought not to be less than four, or 
more than twelve years old : '' Ex 
*' his qui quadrimis minores sunt, 
" majoresque quam duodecim an- 
*' norum, prohibentur admissura : 
" illi quoniam quasi puerili aetate 
" seminandis armentis parum ha- 
'' bentur idonei : hi, quia senio 
'' sunt effoeti." 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



237 



Atque aliam ex alia generando suffice prolem. 
Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi 66 
Prima fugit: subeunt morbi, tristisque senectus: 
Et labor et durae rapit inclementia mortis. 
Semper erunt, quarum mutari corpora raalis. 
Semper enim refice : ac, ne post amissa requiras, 
Anteveni, et sobolem armento sortire quotannis. 
Nee non et pecori est idem delectus equino. 
Tu modo, quos in spem statues summittere 

gentis, 
Praecipuum jam inde a teneris impende laborem. 
Continuo pecoris generosi pullus in arvis 75 



and secure a succession of 
them by geneiaiion. The 
best tiaie of life flies first 
away from miserable mortals; 
diseases succeed, and sad old 
age; and labour, and the in- 
clemency of severe death car- 
ries them away. There will 
always be some, whose bodies 
yon will clioose to l)ave 
changed. Therefore conti- 
nually repair them: and, 
that you may not be at a loss 
when it is too late, be before- 
hand; and provide a new 
otJspring for the herd every 
year. Nor does it require 
less care to choose a good 
breed of horses. But bestow 
your principal diligence, from 
the very beginning, on those 
which you are to depend upon 
for tlie increase of their spe- 
cies. The colt of a generous 
breed from the very first 



65. Suffice.'] In one of the 
Arundelian manuscripts it is con/ice. 

6d' Semper erunt, quarum mutari 
corpora malis.'] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is enim in- 
stead of erunt. In the same manu- 
script, as also in the King's and in 
the Cambridge manuscripts, and in 
some of the old printed editions, it 
is mavis instead of malis. Pierius 
reads mavis ; but he says it is malis 
in the ancient copies, and thinks 
this reading more elegant. 

Columella says the best breeders 
are to be picked out every year, and 
the old and barren cows are to be 
removed, and applied to the labour 
of the plough: " Sed et curandum 
" est omnibus annis in hoc aeque, 
" atque in reliquis gregibus pecoris, 
" ut delectus habeatur : nam et 
*' enixse, et vetustae, quae gignere 
" desierunt, summovendse sunt, et 
" utique taurae, quae locum fcEcun- 
" darum occupant, ablegandae, vel 
'' aratro domandae, quoniam la- 
" boris, et operis non minus, quam 
" juvenci, propter uteri sterilitatem 
" patientes sunt." 

70. Semper enim.] " For semper 
" itaque/' Servius. 



71. Anteveni, et sobolem.] " In 
" the Medicean, and in the Lom- 
" bard manuscripts it is ante veni 
" sobolem, without ei. In some 
" copies it is antevenij in one word." 
Pierius. 

72. Nee non, &c.] The Poet now 
proceeds to speak of horses, and 
begins with describing the charac- 
ters of a colt, which is to be chosen 
to make a good stallion. 

73. Statues.] So it is in the Ro- 
man, and some other manuscripts, 
according to Pierius. Grimoaldus, 
La Cerda, and others read staluis. 

75. Continuo.] It signifies jTrom 
the very beginning. Thus in the first 
Georgick : 

Continuo has leges, aeternaque fcedera 

certis 
Imposuit natura locis, quo tempore pri- 

raum 
Deucalion vacuum lapides jactavit in 

orbem. 

That is, immediately from the very 
time that Deucalion threw the stones: 
and 

Continuo in sylvis magna vi flexa do- 

matur 
In burim, et curvi formam accipit ulmus 

aratri. 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



ufids''ifen*^?\t'?endlr Altius iflgreditur, et mollia crura reponit. 

pasterns. He is Ihe first that _^ . . n ' 

?enfare%Kgh%hTfate.ring P^i^us et ire viam, ct fluvios tentarc mmaces 

streams. 



That is, at the very first, whilst it is 
young, the elm is bent: and 

Continuo ventis surgentibus aut freta 

ponti 
Incipiunt agitata tumescere. 

That is, immediately, as soon as the 
winds are beginning to rise. In like 
manner it signifies in this place 
that a good horse is to be known 
from the very first, as soon almost 
as he is foaled. Virgil follows 
Varrointhis: *'Qualis futurus sit 
'^ equus, e pullo conjectari potest." 

Generosi.'] La Cerda reads gene- 
rosus, in which he seems to be sin- 
gular. 

76. Altius ingreditur.] Servius in- 
terprets this " cum exultatione qua- 
*' dam incedit." Thus also Gri- 
moaldus paraphrases it : " Primum 
"' omnium pulli animus ferox, et 
'' excelsus existimabitur ab incessu 
*' sublimi, videlicet, si cum exulta- 
" tione quadam excursitet." In this 
they are followed by May, who 
translates it walke proudly : and by 
Dr. Trapp, who renders it rvifk 
lofty port prances. Dryden has pa- 
raphrased it in a strange manner: 

Of able body, sound of limb and wind, 
Upright he Avalks, on pasterns firm and 

straight ; 
His motions easy, prancing in his gait. 

I rather believe the Poet means 
only that the colt ought to have 
long, straight legs, whence he must 
necessarily look tall as he walks. 
Thus Columella : " aequalibus, at- 
" que altis, rectisque cruribus." 

Mollia crura r€pojiit.~\ In the 
Cambridge manuscript it is reflectii 
instead of repojiit. 

I believe the Poet means by repo- 
nit the alternate motion of the legs. 
The epithet mollia may signify ei- 



ther the tenderness of the young 
colt's joints, as May has translated 
it: 

— Their soft joynts scarce knit : 

or that those which are naturally 
most flexible are best; which Dry- 
den seems to express by his motions 
easy ; and Dr. Trapp by his pliant 
limbs. Ennius has used the same 
words to express the walking of 
cranes : 

Perque fabam repunt, et mollia crura re- 
ponunt. 

Grimoaldus has paraphrased it thus: 
" Deinde, si non dure, non inepte, 
" non crebra crurum jactatione 
^^procurrat: sed qui alterno, et 
" recte disposito crurum explicatu 
" faciles, apteque flexibiles tibias 
" reponat." 

77. Primus et ire viam, &c.] 
Servius understands this of the 
colt's walking before his dam : but 
it seems a better interpretation, 
that he is the first, amongst other 
colts, to lead the way. Thus Gri- 
moaldus paraphrases it : " Tum 
" etiam, si praeire caeteros, viaeque 
'' palustris dux, et anteambulo fieri 
'' gestiat." Most of the commen- 
tators understand this passsage in 
the same sense. 

Varro says it is a sign that a 
colt will prove a good horse, if he 
contends Avith his companions, and 
is the first amongst them to pass 
a river: '^ Equi boni futuri signa 
" sunt, si cum gregalibus in pabulo 
'' contendit, in currendo, aliave 
'' qua re, quo potior sit : si cum 
" flumen transvehundum est, gregi 
" in primis praegreditur, ac non 
" respectat alios." Columella 
speaks much to the same pur- 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



239 



and trust himself on an un- 
known bridge: nor is he 
^^ , . . •, TIT 1 • afraid of vain noises. His 

Nec vanos horret strepitus. Illi arclua cervix, "eck is lofty. 



Audet, et ignoto sese committere ponti : 



pose: '* Si ante gregem procurrit, 
" si lascivia et alacritate interdum 
'' et cursu certans aequales exupe- 
" rat, si fossam sine cunctatione 
" transilit,pontem,flumenque trans- 
" cendit." 

78. Ponii.^ " Fonto. In the Ro- 
** man, the Lombard, and in some 
" other manuscripts it is ponti : for 
" what have horses to do v/ith the 
** sea ? but with rivers and bridges 
** they are often concerned. Though 
'' in Calabria and Apulia they try 
'' the mettle of their horses, by 
'* driving them down to the sea, 
" and observing whether they look 
" intrepid at the coming in of the 
" tide, and therefore accustom the 
" colts to swim. It is ponto how- 
'' ever in the Medicean copy." 

PlERIUS. 

I find ponto in the King's, the 
Cambridge, one of the Arundelian, 
and in one of Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts ; in the old Nurenberg edi- 
tion, and in an old edition printed 
at Paris in 1494. But ponti is ge- 
nerally received. Columella, who 
follows our Poet, mentions a bridge, 
not the sea, in the quotation at the 
end of the note on the preceding 
verse. May reads ponto : 

And dare themselves on unknowne seas 
to venture. 

Dryden reads pofiti : 

To pass the bridge unknown : 
And Dr. Trapp : 

Unknown bridges pass. 

79- -^ec vanos horret strepitus.'] 
In the King's and in one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is varios in- 
stead of vanos. I find the same 



reading also in some of the old 
printed editions. 

Columella says a good colt is in- 
trepid, and is not affrighted at any 
unusual sight or noise : ^' Cum vero 
" natus est puUus, confestim licet 
** indolem aestimare, si hilaris, si in- 
" trepidus, si neque conspectu, no- 
" vaeque rei auditu terretur." 

1 Hi ardua cervix.] Quintilian cen- 
sures V^irgil for interrupting the 
sense with a long parenthesis: 
" Etiam interjectione, qua et Ora- 
" tores et Historici frequenter utun- 
" tur, ut medio sermone aliquem 
'' inserant sensum., impediri solet 
" intellectus, nisi quod interponitur, 
" breve est. Nam Virgilius illo 
" loco quo pullum equinum descri- 
" bit, cum dixisset, Nec vanos horret 
*' strepitus compluribus insertis, alia 
'' figura quinto demum versu redit, 

♦• — — Turn siqua sotnim procul arma de- 

" dcre, 
" Stare loco nescit,'" 

But I do not see that the sense is 
here interrupted. By nec vanos 
horret strepitus, the Poet means that 
a good colt is not apt to start at the 
rustling of every leaf, at every little 
noise, that portends no danger. 
But by turn si qua sonum, &c. he 
means that the colt shews his mettle 
by exulting at a military noise, at 
which he erects his ears, bounds, 
paws, and is scarce able to contain 
himself. It not only is unnecessary, 
but would even be dull poetry, to 
give a regular, orderly description 
of a horse from head to tail. Pal- 
ladius is very methodical in what 
he says on this subject: '^In ad- 
" missaria quatuor spectanda sunt, 
" forma, color, meritum, pulchri- 
'' tudo." This is very well in prose. 



1I40 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and his bead is small, his belly 
short, and his back broad : and 
his spritely breast swells luxu- 
riantly with rolls of brawn : 
the best colour is a bright 
bay, and beautiful grey ; the 
worst is white 



Argutumque caput, brevis alvus, obesaque 
terga : 80 

Luxuriatque toris animosum pectus : honesti 
Spadices, glaucique ; color deterrimus albis, 



but had Virgil proceeded in the 
same manner, we might perhaps 
have commended his exactness, but 
should never have admired his poe- 
try. Dr. Trapp says, " These words 
*' illi urdua cervix to glaucique 
" should be in a parenthesis 3" but, 
as his translation is printed, the pa- 
renthesis includes only what is said 
of the colour. 

By ardua is meant that the colt 
carries his head well, not letting it 
hang down. Horace has the same 
epithet, when he describes a good 
horse : 

Regibus hie mos est ; ubi equos mercan- 

tur, apertos 
Inspiciunl : ne si facies, ut saspe, decora 
Molli fulta pede est, emptorem inducat 

hiantem, 
Quod pulchrae dunes, breve quod caput, 

ardua cervix. 

80. Argutmnque caput.'] May 
translates this short-headed, Dryden 
sharp-headed, Dr. Trapp his head 
acute. I have rendered it his head 
is small, which agrees with what 
Varro has said, ** caput habet non 
**magnum:" and Columella, ^'Cor- 
'' poris vero forma constabit exiguo 
"capite;'* and Palladius, " Pul- 
" chritudinis partes hae sunt, ut sit 
" exiguum caput et siccum." Ho- 
race commends a short head: " breve 
'' quod caput." 

81. Luxuriatque toris aniniosum 
pectus.'] The tori are brawny swell- 
ings of the muscles. Varro says 
the breast should be broad and full : 
*^* pectus latum et plenum." Colu- 
mella says it should be full of 
brawny swelling? of the muscles : 
** musculorum toris numeroso pec- 



'' tore." Palladius says it should 
be broad : " pectus late patens." 
Virgil's description of the breast is 
more expressive than any other, 
and he adds the epithet animosum 
to shew that this luxuriance of 
brawn in the muscles denotes the 
spirit and fire of the horse. But 
the translators have unhappily 
agreed to leave out this noble epi- 
thet. May has only hroad and full 
breasted: Dryden only, brawny his 
chest, and deep: and Dr. Trapp, his 
chest with swelling knots luxuriant. 

82. Spadices.] It is very difficult 
to come to an exact knowledge of 
the signification of those words, by 
which the ancients expressed their 
colours. Spadix signified a branch 
of a palm, as we find it used by 
Plutarch in the fourth question of 
the eighth book of his Symposiacs : 
K«/ T«« ^«xS ^a< fA,vnfAonviiv h roTg 'At- 
TiKolg uviyiUKaq ivocy^og, ort v^arog li 
A!i?ia Qyia-ivg aymoe, froiZv, ecxia-^x<rt 
xXci^ov TcXi it^ov ^oiinKog, ^ Kxi 'Z'7roioi% 
atofAUTdn- We learn from Aulus 
Gellius, that the Dorians called a 
branch of a palm plucked off with 
the fruit, Spadix; and that the 
fruits of the palm being of a shining 
red, that colour came to be called 
phceniceus and spadix : " Phoeni- 
'^ ceus quem tu Graece (potmch dix- 
*' isti, noster est, et rutilus, et spa- 
" dix phcEuicei o-vmyvfAo;, qui factus 
" Graece noster est, exuberantiam 
" splendoremque significat ruboris, 
" quales sunt fructus palmae arboris 
" non admodum sole incocti, unde 
'' spadicis et phcenicei nomen est : 
" spadica enira Dorici vocant avul- 
" sum e palma termitem cum fruc- 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



241 



Etgilvo. Tumsiquasonumprocularmadedere, nofseSfamsls^hei'liLmfi'* 



" tu." Plutarch also, in the place 
just now cited, gives us to under- 
stand that the colour in question 
was like the beautiful redness of a 
human face : 'O yovv /i<£<rtXiv?, ag (px~ 
<riv, uyxTTKO-ecg dix^e^ovrei)^ rh Ui^iTrurn- 
riKOi (pi^^oero^ov NtKoXecov yXvKVV ovtcc tu 
n^iiy ox^ivov di TA> fii^Kii TAv <ra)f/.ct,rcq , 
dictTTMav M TO w^oa-UTrov l7ri^civi<r(rovTog 
l^vB^^uocro^, TUi fciylo-Tct^ Kxi KxXXia-rxg 
tav <poivtKoQxXdvav HiKoXdovi avofAucrs. 
Hence it appears plainly that the co- 
lour which the ancients called phoe- 
niceus, or spadix, was a bright red, 
but we do not know that any horses 
are exactly of such a colour : though 
the ancients might as well apply red 
to horses, as we to deer. The co- 
lours which come nearest to it seem 
to be the bay, the chesnut, and the 
sorrel. Perhaps all these might be 
contained under the same name, for 
the ancients do not seem to have 
been so accurate in distinguishing 
such a variety of colours, as the 
moderns. I have translated the 
word spadix, bay, in this place, be- 
cause it seems to approach to the 
colour of the spadix, as the ancients 
have described it, and because the 
word bay seems to be derived from 
/ixU, or /ixfov, which is sometimes 
also used for a branch of a palm, as 
we find in the twelfth chapter of 
St. John's Gospel: "EXx/iov ra, /iatx 
rav (potviK&fv, xxi l|?Ad'0V iig vxxvrwiv 
uvtSj xecf SK^x^ov, 'Q,rxvvcc. BxU and 
fixtcv are interpreted by Hesychius 
fxZ^oi (poivtxog. 

Glauci.'] The commentators are 
not agreed about the interpretation 
of this word. I do not well under- 
stand what Servius means by 
" Glauci autem sunt felineis oculis, 
" idestquodam splendoreperfusis." 
Surely he cannot think the Poet is 
speaking of the colour of a horse's 



eye. Grimoaldus puts rutili for 
glauci. But rutilus is reckoned 
among the red colours by Aulus 
Gellius: " Fulvus enim, et flavus, 
*' et rubidus, et phoeniceus, et ruti- 
" lus, et Inteus, et spadix appella- 
'^ tiones sunt ruji coloris, aut acuen- 
"" tes eum quasi incendentes, aut 
" cum colore viridi miscentes, aut 
'' nigro infuscantes aut virenti sen- 
'' sim albo illuminantes." And in- 
deed our Poet himself has added it 
as an epithet to fire in the first 
Georgick : 

Sin maculae incipient rutilo immiscerier 
igni. 

And in the eighth yEneid : 

His informatum manibus, jam parte po- 
lita 

Fulmen erat, toto genitor quae plurima 
caelo 

Dejicit in terras, pars imperfecta mane- 
bat. 

Tres imbris torti radios, tres nubis aquosae 

Addiderant, rutili tres ignis et alitis 
Austri. 

Thus rutilus seems to be much the 
same colour with spadix : but I be- 
lieve it cannot be proved that glau- 
cus was ever used to express any 
sort of red colour. La Cerda says, 
that as spadix signifies a bright bay, 
so glaucus signifies darker bay, such 
as the leaves of willows have. But 
if he means by baius the same co- 
lour that we call bay, I cannot ima- 
gine by what strength of fancy that 
learned commentator can imagine 
the leaves of willows to be of any 
sort of bay. Ruaeus concludes from 
what Aulus Gellius has said con- 
cerning glaucus, that it means what 
the French call pommele ardois, that 
is, a dappled grey. May translates 
this passage ; 



Let his colour be 



Bright bay or grey : 
2l 



24S 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



st!ii,''he erec"ts hi?errs,'and'2fi StOTe loco ncsclt : micat auHbus, et tremit artus ; 

his joints quiver. 



And Dryden : 



his colour grey, 



For beauty dappled, or the brightest bay : 
And Dr. Trapp: 

Best for coFour is the bay, 

And dappled. 

But I am afraid dappled determines 
no colour ; but may be applied to 
bay, as well as to grey. Let us 
now examine what is to be found 
in the ancient writers concerning 
this colour. Homer's common epi- 
thet for Minerva is blue-eyed : y'htx.v- 
KUTrig 'A%vn. In this case glaucus 
seems to be used for a bluish grey. 
Virgil himself uses it to express the 
colour of willow-leaves, in the se- 
cond Georgick : 

Gluuca canentia fronde salicta. 

And in the fourth Georgick : 

Et glancas salices : 

And of reeds, in the tenth ^Eneid : 

Quos patre Benaco, velatus arundine 

glanca 
Mincius infesta ducebat in aequora pinu. 

The colour of willows and reeds is 
a bluish green, approaching to grey. 
Much of the same colour are the 
leaves of the greater Celandine, 
which Dioscorides calls vTroyXocvKu,: 
"X-iT^iooinov [jcfi.yce, xaJwXoy uyiTio-i TfTft^vxTov , 

(pvXy^U)! fCKrreii' (phxXx ofAoioc, ^cctqccyjia, 
r^v(pi^aTi^x fjciv rci ra, rev ^iM^eviov kcc} 
v7roy?^etvKx riiy x^oetv. Plutarch speak- 
ing of the different colours of the 
moon in an eclipse, according to 
the different times of the night, 
says that about day-break it is of a 
bluish colour : which occasioned 
the Poets and Empedocles to call 
the moon yXccvxaTrt^ I 'AAA' ovk 'isTiv^ 



6VJ0fg 01 fittB-nf^eCTlKOt KOtTCt p^^OVOV KXl 

(pxmron ftihotivx duvag a.)(,^i r^'iTng a^ccg 
XMi Vifjcia-iloti' »v ^£ ffcScTj), rovro 5^ to Itci- 
(potyi<r<rev tn<ri, iccci ttvp xeci Trv^UTrev' 
cItto ^l sZ^ifMig a^ot^ Kxi vifiia-iUg , dvia-rcc- 
rott TO l^v^ni/zci. Kcu riXog >j^ Trgo? Se* 

oi<P^ ^5 ^vi KoCi fAclhi'^ai, yXxvKaTTiv xvTViy el 

The colour which Plutarch means 
in this passage seems to be a bluish 
grey. Aulus Gellius seems to con- 
found green and blue together, for 
he says that when Virgil mentioned 
the green colour of a horse, he might 
as well have expressed it by the 
Latin word cceruleus, as by the 
Greek word glaucus. '' Sed ne vi- 
*' ridis quidem color pluribus ab 
" illis, quam a nobis, vocabulis di- 
" citur. Neque non potuit Virgi- 
" lius colorem equi significare viri- 
*' dem volens, caeruleum magis di- 
*' cere equum quam glaucum : sed 
" maluit verbo uti notiore Graeco, 
'' quam inusitato Latino. Nostris 
'^ autem Latinis veteribus caesia 
*' dicta est quae a Graecis yXccvKu^i^, 
" ut Nigidius ait de colore caeli 
'' quasi caelia." From all these 
quotations I think it appears, that 
the ancients meant by glaucus a 
colour which had a faint green 
or blue cast. Now as no horse 
can be properly said to be either 
blue or green, we may conclude 
that the colour meant by Virgil is 
a fine grey, which has a bluish 
cast. But I do not see how Ruaeus 
could gather from Aulus Gellius, 
whose words I have related at 
length, that this grey was dappled. 
It must however be allowed that 
the dappled grey is the most beau- 
tiful. 

Albis.] S. Isidore, informs us 



Collectumque 
ignem : 



premens 



GEORG. LIB. III. 

volvit sub 



243 



nni'i'hiic ^"^ snorting he rolls the col- 
iiaiiuua iccted fire under his nostrils. 

85 



that albus and candidus are very 
different: candidus signifying a 
bright whiteness, like snow: and 
albus a pale or dirty white: " Can- 
'' didus autem et albus invicem sibi 
'^ differunt. Nam albus cum quo- 
" dam pallore est, candidus vero, 
" niveus et pura luce perfusus." 
I am not perfectly satisfied with 
this distinction : for Virgil himself 
frequently uses albus exactly in the 
same sense as he uses candidus. In 
the second Georgick he uses it for 
the whiteness of the finest wool : 

Albaneque Assyrio fuscatur lana veneno. 
And again in the same Georgick : 

Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges. 
And in the third Georgick : 

Continuoque greges villis lege mollibus 
albos. 

And in the third ^neid : 

Nigram hyemi pecudem, Zephyris felici- 
bus albam. 

In the seventh ^neid it is used for 
the whiteness of the teeth of a lion : 

lUe pedes teginen torqueus immane le- 

onis, 
Terribili impexura seta, cum dentibus 

albis 
Indutus capiti. 

And of a wolf in the eleventh : 

Caput ingens oris hiatus 

Et malae texere lupi cum dentibus albis. 

In the fifth iEneid it is used for the 
whiteness of bones blanched on a 
rock: 

Jamque adeo scopulos advecta subibat, 
Difficiles quondam, muitorumque ossibus 
albos. 



In the seventh ^neid, for the 
whiteness of hairs in old age: 

In vultus sese iransformat aniles, 

Et frontem obsccenam rugis arat : induit 

albos 
Cum vitta crines. 

And again in the ninth : 

Omnia longaevo similis, vocemque, colo- 

remque 
Et crines albos. 

In the second Eclogue we have 
both candidus and albus in the sameT 
signification : 

Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus 

esses : 
O formose puer, nimium ne crede colori. 
Alba ligustra cadunt, vaccinia nigra le- 

guntur. 

In the fourth Georgick lilies are 
called alba; and surely no one will 
say that flower is of a dirty white, 
or not sufficiently bright, to deserve 
the epithet of candidus. 



Lilia. 



Albaque circum 



And in the twelfth iEneid the 
blushes of the beautiful Laviniaare 
compared to ivory stained with 
crimson, or lilies mixed with roses. 
And here the lilies are called alba, 
which being compared to the fair 
complexion of this lady, I hope will 
not be supposed to be of a dirty 
white: 

Accepit vocem lacrymis Lavinia matris, 
Flagrantes perfusa genas : cui plurimus 

ignem 
Subjecit rubor, et calefacta per^^ora cu- 

currit. 
Indum sanguineo veluti violaverit ostro 
Si quis ebur, vel mixta rubent ubi lilia. 

multa 
Alba rosa : tales virgo dabat ore colores, 
2 I 2 



244 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



?n"hbri|hViKi/ilr.'* '''"''' Densa juba, et dextro j aetata recumbit in armo. 



But what I think will put it past 
all dispute, that Virgil made no 
difference of colour between albus 
and candidus, is that, in the eighth 
iEneid, the very same white sow, 
which in ver. 45. he called alba, 
is called Candida in ver. 82. and is 
said also in this last verse to be of 
the same colour with her pigs, to 
which the epithet albo is applied : 

Littoreis ingens inventa sub ilicibus sus, 
Triginta capitum foetus enixa, jacebit; 
^Iha, solo recubans, albi circum ubera 
nati. 

Ecce autem subitum, atque oculis mira- 

bile monstrum ; 
Candida per sylvam aim foetu concolor 

albo 
Procubult, viridique in littore conspicitur 

!US. 

I have dwelt so long on this sub- 
ject, because almost all the com- 
mentators have agreed to approve 
of this distinction, which I believe 
I have sufficiently shewn to be 
made without any good foundation. 
What led them into this error seems 
to be, that it would otherwise ap- 
pear an absurdity in Virgil, to dis- 
praise a white horse in his Geor- 
gicks, and in his twelfth ^neid, to 
mention it as a beauty in the horses, 
which drew the chariot of Turnus, 
that they were whiter than snow : 

Poscit equos, gaudetque tuens ante ora 
f rem antes, 

Pilumno quos ipsa decus dedit Orithyia ; 

Qui candore nives anteirent, cursibus au- 
ras. 

But they did not observe one parti- 
cular, which might have saved them 
the trouble of making this distinc- 
tion. These very horses, which 
are said to be whiter than snow, 
have the epithet albis bestowed on 
them, a few lines after : 

' Bigis it Turnus in albis. 



Virgil however does not contradict 
himself ; for though he admires the 
beauty of these snowy horses, yet 
there was no necessity, that he 
should approve the same colour in 
a stallion. White was esteemed by 
the ancients as a sign of less na- 
tural strength, than was discovered 
by other colours. 

83. Gilvo.l S. Isidore explains 
gilvus, to be the colour of honey, 
but whitish : *' Gilvus autem meli- 
" nus color est subalbidus." I take 
this to be what sve call dun. May 
translates it flesh-colour : Dryden 
dun : and Dr. Trapp sorrel. 

Turn si qua sonum procul arma 
dedere, stare loco nescit^ We find 
some expressions like this of Virgil, 
in that noble description of a horse, 
in the book of Job : " He paweth 
" in the valley, and rejoiceth in his 
" strength : . . . . heswallovveth the 
" ground with fierceness and rage: 
" neither believeth he that it is the 
" sound of the trumpet. He saith 
'' among the trumpets. Ha, ha ; and 
'' he smelleth the battle afar off, 
" the thunder of the captains, and 
" the shouting." 

84. Micat auribus."^ Pliny says 
the ears discover tlie spirit of a 
horse, as the tail does that of a 
lion : '' Leonum animi index cauda, 
'' sicut et equorum aures: namque 
** et has notasgenerosissimo cuique 
*' natura tribuit." 

85. Collectutnque premens volvit 
sub naribus ignemJ] It is fremens 
instead o^ premens in the Cambridge 
manuscript. Pierius says it has 
been altered to fremens in the Me- 
dicean copy, but it was premens 
before, as he finds it also in other 
copies which he looks upon to be 
the most correct. 

Wide nostrils and frequent snort- 
ings are great signs of mettle in a 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



245 



At duplex agitur per lumbos spina, cavatque 
Tellurem, et solido graviter sonat ungula cornii. 
Talis Amyclaei domitus Pollucis habenis 



A double spine runs along his 
loins; and his hoof turns np 
the ground, and sounds deep 
with solid horn. Such was 
Cyllarus, who w;is tamed by 
(he reins of Amyclean Pollux ; 



horse. Thus it is expressed in the 
book of Job : '' The glory of his 
" nostrils is terrible." Varro says 
the nostrils should not be narrow : 
" Naribus non angustis." Colu- 
mella says they should he open ; 
" naribus apertis :" with which 
Palladius also agrees, who says, 
" naribus patulis." 

86. Densa juba, et dextro jactata 
recumbit in armo.'] Thus Varro; 
" Non angusta juba, crebra, fusca, 
" subcrispa, subtenuibus setis im- 
^' plicatain dexteriorem partem cer- 
'* vicis :" and Columella; ''Densa 
" juba, et per dextram partem pro- 
** fusa." 

87. Duplex spina.'] In a horse, 
that is in good case, the back is 
broad, and the spine does not stick 
up like a ridge, but forms a kind 
of furrow on the back. This seems 
to be what is meant by duplex spina, 
which is also mentioned by Varro ; 
" Spina maxime duplici, sin minus 
" non extanti :" and by Columella; 
*' Spina duplici." 

88. Sonat.'] It is quatit in the 
Roman manuscript, according to 
Pierius. 

Sp. Talis AmyclcEi domitus Pollu- 
cis habenis Cyllarus.] Amyclae was 
a city of Laconia, where Castor 
and Pollux were educated. 

Servius thinks that Pollux is put 
here for Castor, by a poetical li- 
cence. Pollux being famous for 
fighting with the cestus, not for the 
management of horses, which was 
Castor's province. Most of the 
commentators give up this passage 
as a slip of the Poet's memory, 
Pollux being allowed to be the 
horseman by the general consent of 



antiquity. Thus Homer in the ele- 
venth Odyssey: 

K«< fi^^tjv iT$ov Tfiv Tuv^ec^ieu zfa^dKoinv. 
"H 'p vto Tvv^d^iM x^ars^oip^av' iyiivxre 

Kecfro^a B-' i^r-Te^ufAov ku,) -au^ kya^ov Ho- 
Xv^iuxia. 

With graceful port advancing now I 

spied 
Leda the fair, the god-like Tyndar's 

bride : 
Hence Pollux sprung, who wields with 

furious sway 
The deathful gauntlet, matchless in the 

fray; 
And Castor glorious on th' embattled 

plain 
Curbs the proud steed, reluctant to the 

rein. 

Mr. Pope. 

To the same purpose Theocritus is 
quoted in his Aioo-kcv^oi. 

'TfAviofiiS tir^as Ti xa) alyiop^a Aios w», 
Kds-e^a xa) <po€s^ev HeKv^tvxia -zru^ i^s^i' 



"Si Tt, Kdffro^, kiKfu 



Here Theocritus does not seem 
however to make any distinction 
between the two brothers as fight- 
ing, the one on horseback, the 
other on foot. The difference he 
seems to make is taken from their 
weapons, Pollux using the cestus, 
and Castor the spear. Indeed he 
calls Castor f»yju'7ca>^ii but he im- 
mediately introduces him fighting 
on foot, as well as his brother. 
Creech, in his translation of the two 
first verses, represents them both as 
horsemen, and using the cestus : 

Fair Leda's sons, and mighty Jove's I 

sing, 
Castor and Pollux, glories of the rmg. 



M6 



R VIRGILII MARONIS 



and those which the Greek 
Poets mention, the brace of 



Cyllarus, et quorum Graii meminere poetae, 



None toss their whirlbats with so brave 

a force, 
None guide so well the fury of their 

horse. 

Horace also is quoted in opposition 
to Virgil J for he plainly says, that 
Castor delighted in horses, but Pol- 
lux in the cestus : 

Castor gaudet equis : ovo prognatus eo- 

dem 
Pugnis. 

But here Horace seems to have for- 
gotten the story ; for, according to 
the old fable. Castor and Pollux 
did not come out of the same egg, 
but Castor and Clytemnestra out of 
one, and Pollux and Hellen out of 
the other. Seneca also, in his Hip- 
polytus, expressly declares Cyllarus 
to be the horse of Castor : 

Si dorso libeat cornipedis vehi, 
Fraenis Castorea nobilior manu 
Spartanum poteris flectere Cyllarum : 



As does Valerius Flaccus, 
first book of Argonautics : 



his 



Castor dum quaereret Hellen, 



Passus Amyclaea pinguescere Cyllaron 
herba : 

And Claudian, in his fourth Con- 
sulship of Honorius : 

Si dominus legeretur equis, tua posceret 
ultro 

Verbera Nereidum stabulis nutritus 
Arion. 

Serviretque tuis contempto Castore frae- 
nis 

Cyllarus : 

And Martial, in the twenty-first 
Epigram of the eighth book : 

Ledaeo poteras abducere Cyllaron astro : 
Ipse suo cedet nunc tibi Castor equo. 

These are all the passages, which I 
remember to have seen produced 



against Virgil, to prove that Cyl- 
larus was the horse, not of Pollux, 
but of Castor. But there are not 
wanting some testimonies to prove 
that both the brothers were horse- 
men. Pindar, in his third Olympic 
ode, calls them iviTr^m Tw^ec^t^af. 
It is related by several historians, 
that in the war between the Ro- 
mans and the Latins, who endea- 
voured to restore Tarquin the 
Proud, Castor and Pollux both 
assisted the Romans on horseback. 
Florus says the battle was so fierce, 
that the gods are reported to have 
come down to see itj but that it 
was looked upon as a certain truth, 
that Castor and Pollux were there, 
on white horses, and that the ge- 
neral vowed a temple to them for 
their service : '* Ea demum atro- 
*' citas fuit praelii, ut interfuisse 
'* spectaculo deos fama tradiderit, 
" duos in candidis equis Castorem 
*' atque Pollucem nemo dubitarit. 
" Itaque et Imperator veneratus est, 
" nactusque victoriam templa pro- 
*' misit : et reddidit plane quasi 
" commilitonibus deis stipendium." 
Thus we see it was an article of 
faith, among the ancient Romans, 
that they both fought on horseback. 
In like manner Ovid also represents 
them both mounted on white horses, 
and both using spears at the hunt- 
ing of the Calydonian boar : 

At gemini, nondum caelestia sidera, fra- 

tres, 
Ambo conspicui nive candidioribus alba 
Vectabantur equis : ambo vibrata per 

auras 
Hastarum tremulo quatiebant spicula 

motu : 

Though he had a little before, ac- 
cording to the received opinion, 
said one was famous for the cestus, 
and the other for horses : 



GEORG. LIB. III. 247 

Martis equi bijuges, et magni currus Achillis. Achfiies"'^ "'^ ''*'''""* "^^"^^^^ 



Tyndaridae gemini, 

alter. 
Alter equo. 



spectatus caestibus 



Statins, in his poem on Doraitian's 
horse, mentions Cyllarus, as serving 
the two brothers alternately : 

Hunc et Adrastaeus visum extimuisset 

Arion. 
Et pavet aspiciens Ledaeus ab aede pro- 

pinqua 
Cyllarus : hie domini nunquam mutabit 

habenas; 
Perpetuis frasnis, atque uni serviet astro. 

Stesichorus also, according to Sui- 
das, says, that Mercury gave Phlo- 
geus and Harpagus, and Cyllarus 
to Castor and Pollux: 'Zrwt^o^os 
^yiart Tov 'Egf4?v h^tuKivxi rolg Aiot-kov- 
^oig ^Xoyiov, xx("A^-7retyov aiKieig, rixvov 

Hodci^yxg Kxt KvXXx^ov. Pliny men- 
tions the charioteers of both the 
brothers : '' Sunt qui conditam earn 
" ab Amphito et Telchio, Castoris 
" ac Pollucis aurigis piitent." From 
these quotations I think it appears, 
that those are in the wrong, who 
suppose Cyllarus to belong only to 
Castor. It seems to me, that both 
the brothers had an equal property 
in the horses, and therefore, that 
they might as well be ascribed to 
Pollux as to Castor. Propertius 
speaks of the horse of Pollux, 
without any mention of Castor: 

Potaque Pollucis nympha salubris equo. 

91. Martis equi bijuges.'} Servius 
and others say the horses of Mars 
are Fear and Terror, Others con- 
tend that these are the companions, 
and not the horses, of that deity. 
Those who think they are the 
horses of Mars, seem to have fallen 
into that error, by misunderstand- 
ing the following passage in the 
fifteenth Iliad: 



"fl; <pciro' xcci 'p 'Ifjeeuf Kiktro AtTfAov n 

^o'fiov re 
Zivyvv/4,iv. 

I believe they took Ai7(>cov and <Po/3ov 
to be joined with 'iTTTrovg, whereas 
they are certainly the names of the 
persons whom Mars commanded to 
harness the horaes, as Mr. Pope 
has justly translated it: 

With that, he gives command to Fear 

and Flight 
To join his rapid coursers for the fight. 

Besides, in the thirteenth Iliad, Ho- 
mer mentions <p<j/3oj, or terror, not 
only as the companion, but as the 
son of Mars ; 

OTos ^l fi^oroXoiyos"Aqt]s ^oXt/xov^i fiirtKrif 
Tuj Tt ^ofios (p'iXos vlos a,fjt,a x^an^os xai 

"Effffiro, offT \<p'o^riffi vaXd<p^ovd jrsg a'aXi- 
fAiffrnv, 

So Mars armipotent invades the plain, 
(The wide destroyer of the race of man,) 
Terror, his best-lov'd son, attends his 

course 
Arm'd with stern boldness, and enor- 
mous force : 
The pride of haughty warriors to con- 
found. 
And lay the strength of tyrants on the 
ground. 

Mn. Pope. 

Hesiod, in his GioymeCj mentions 
both /ear and terror, as the sons of 
Mars and Venus: 



Aura^ "A^n't' 



'Vivoro^u Kv^e^iia ^ofiov xai AsTfjcov 'irixrtv, 
Aiivovs, eiT av\Zv ^vxtvag xkoviouffs <pet- 

Xayyois, 
'Ev VoXiftM x^uoivrif ffi/v "A^ti'i TroXitri^^ijt, 
'A^fiievitiv ff , nv K-ci^fios ifsr'i^dvfios Sir 

UxoiTiv. 

In the 'Ao-ttU 'HgaacAsoy^, of which 
Hesiod is supposed to be the au- 
thor, we find i\\e golden, swift -footed 
horses of Mars mentioned, and /ear 



248 



P. VIRGILIT MARONIS 



SSt^pTead'ar's^lr^^e Talis et ipse jubaoi cervice efFudit equina 

over his neck, and fled swiftly r-^ • • i • r- 

and'^fiireTiofty Peik,'n I'ith ^oiijugis adveiitu pemix Satumus, et ahum 

'a""i?or"e'?hS bf oppressed PelioD hinnitu fugleus implevit acuto. 

with a sickness, or grow slug- ^ 

gish with years, Hunc quoque, ubi aut morbo gravis, aut jam 



segnior annis 



95 



and terror besides, standing by his 
chariot : 

*Ev y "A^tos fiXefu^oTo ^re^aKSis 'ierraffav 
K^vtTioi' Iv Ts xou avres ha^(po^os evXios 
Ai;;^fthv |y ^tl^ifffft* e;^aiv, ^^vXiiffffi xt- 

XiVUV, 

A'ifiuri (poiviKoitf, uffi) ^aovs iva^i^uv, 
Ai<PQu Ifi^i^ctus' vra^a ^\ Atifies Tt defies 

VI 

"EffraffaVf lifAivat TeXifiov xaTK^Vfiivat a»- 

And at the latter end of the same 
book, they are represented lifting 
Mars into his chariot, after Hercules 
had wounded him, and whijjping 
the horses : 

Ta) ^£ ^e'fios xat AtTfiog iv'r^o^ov ei^fia, xui 
"KKacav cu-^* lyyvf, xa) airo ^Soves tv^vo- 
*Es ^i(pQov ^iixuv ^oXu^ai^aXat' ou'^a ^ 
"ifrovs fJcccffriiTtirf "xevro }\ fiax^h "OXv/Jt,- 

TOV. 

Magni currus Achillis.'\ It is 
Jlchilli in one of Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts, which reading is received 
also by Heinsius and Masvicius, 
Homer celebrates Xanthus and Ba- 
lius, the horses of Achilles, as im- 
mortal, and makes them born of 
the Harj)y Podarge, by the West 
wind : 

Twht xat AvrefAiiui vtrayt ^vyov uxias 

%av6ov xui BaXio¥, rat afta trvei^fi Tiri- 

ffSnv. 
Tov; tnxt Zi^v^o! avifiai''A^9rvtet Ho^a^ynt 
BefxofAivi} XufjLuvt crei^a fee» axtuveTo. 

Then brave Automedon (an honour'd 

name) 
The second to his lord in love and fame, 



In peace his friend, and partner of the 

war. 
The winged coursers harness'd to the 

car. 
Xanthius and Balius, of immortal breed. 
Sprung from the wind, and like the wind 

in speed. 
Whom the wing'd Harpy e, swift Podarge 

bore. 
By Zephyr pregnant on the breezy shore. 
Mk. Pope. 



92. Talis et ipse juham, &c.] 
Philyra was the mistress of Saturn, 
who, to avoid being discovered by 
his wife Ops, coming upon them 
unexpectedly, turned himself into 
a fine horse. The consequence of 
this amour was, that Philyra was 
delivered of Chiron, half a man 
and half a horse, 

Effudit.'] It is effundit in the 
King's and in both the Arundelian 
manuscripts. Hein?ius also and 
Masvidus read effundit. Pierius 
says it is effundit in tiie Roman 
and some other nianustripts. In 
others it is fudit. But he justly 
prefers effudit in the preterperfect 
tense, because the order of the nar- 
ration seems to require that tense, 
for the next verb is implevit. 

94. Pelion.'] It is the name of a 
mountain of Thessaly, where Chiron 
dwelt. 

^5. Hunc quoque, &c.] Having 
given this beautiful description of 
the characters of a good stallion, 
the Poet now observes, that if the 
horse happens to be sick, or if he 
grows old, he is to be confined at 
home, and restrained from the com- 
pany of the mares. The age there- 
fore and spirit of the horse is to be 
diligently considered. Hence the 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



249 



Deficit, abde domo ; nee turpi ignosce senectae. Jtf^'rinJSus 'oiV^e! 

..,.-, . f, , , The old horse is cold in love, 

Frigidus m Venerem senior, irustraque laborem and vainiyjtugs at the an- 



Poet slides into a fine description 
of a chariot race, and an account 
of the inventors of chariots, and 
riding on horseback. 

Jam segnior annis.] Jam is want- 
ing in the King's manuscript. Pi- 
erius says it is segnior (Etas in the 
Roman manuscript, but he justly 
prefers annis. In the old Nuren- 
berg edition it is annus. 

96. Abde domo.'] " For in domo; 
*' for, if he had intended to speak 
'^ adverbially, he would have said 
*' domi. Thus he says, in the 
" fourth ^Eneid, Nan Libyce, non 
^' ante Tyro.'' Servius. 

Nee turpi ignosce senectce.'] *'^ Ci- 
" cero, in his Caio major, both 
*' praises and dispraises old age. 
*' Wherefore this passage may be 
" understood in two senses : either 
'' do not spare his base old age, or 
'* spare his not base old age, that is, 
-'* hide him and spare his old age, 
'* which is not base, because it eomes 
'^naturally.'' Servius. 

The latter of these interpreta- 
tions is generally received, because 
it is more agreeable to the practice 
of the ancients, and the good tem- 
per of Virgil, to use an old horse 
well, in regard to the services he 
has done in his youth. Ennius, as 
he is quoted by Cicero, in his Cato 
major, compares himself to a good 
horse, who has often won the prize 
at the Olympic games, but being 
worn down with age, enjoys his 
rest : 

Sicut fortis equus, spatio qui saepe su- 
premo 

Vicit Olympia, nunc senio confectu' 
quiescit. 

Plutarch condemns Cato for selling 
his old worn-out servants, and 
urges against him the contrary 



practice of treating horses. Ho- 
race, when he prays to Apollo, 
that he may enjoy a not inglorious 
old age, uses the very words of 
Virgil, in this passage : 

Frui paratis, et '^alido mihi, 
Latoe, dones: et precor, Integra 
Cum mente, nee turpem senectam 
Degere, nee cithara carentem. 

Ovid, lamenting the misfortunes 
which attended his old age, says it 
fares otherwise with an old victo- 
rious horse, who is suffered to 
graze quietly in the meadows : 

Ne cadat, et multas palmas inhonestet 
adeptas, 
Languidus in pratis gramina carpit 
equus. 

May's translation is according to 
the first interpretation : 

Yet when disease or age have brought 

to nought 
This horse's spirit, let him at home be 

WTOUght, 

Nor spare his base old age. 

Dryden follows the latter inter- 
pretation, and adds a large para- 
phrase: 

But worn with years, when dire diseases 

come. 
Then hide his not ignoble age at home : 
In peace t' enjoy his former palms and 

pains, 
And gratefully be kind to his remains. 

Dr. Trapp also follows the latter 
interpretation :x 

When weaken'd by disease, or years, he 

fails. 
Indulge him, hous'd ; and mindful of 

the past. 
Excuse his not dishonourable age. 

97. Frigidus in Venerem senior.'] 
In the King's manuscript it is/n- 
gidus in Venerem est senior. 



250 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



engagi, hi ra|es hipStiy, Ingratum trahit : et, si quando ad proelia ven- 

as a great fire sometimes rages 

without force, amongst the tum esf Qo 

stubble. Therefore chiefly Ob- *'""* ^^^' ^^ 

eir spirit an jj^ quondam in stipulis magnus sine viribus ignis 

Incassum furit. Ergo animos aevumque notabis 



98. Proelia.'] La Cerda thinks 
the Poet speaks of the horse's 
unfitness for war: l)ut surely he 
means the battles of Venus, not 
those of Mars. In the same sense 
he uses bella in the eleventh 
^neid. 

At non in Venerem segnes, nocturuaque 
bella. 

99- Quondam.'] It is not always 
used to signify any determinate 
time. Here I take it to mean only 
sometimes, as it is used also in the 
fourth Georgick : 

Frigidus ut quondam sylvis immurmurat 
Auster; 

And in the second ^neid: 

Nee soli poenas dant sanguine Teu- 

cri : 
Quondam etiam victis redit in prascordia 

virtus, 
Victoresque cadunt Danai. 

And again : 

Adversi rupto seu quondam turbine venti 
Confligunt. 

And in the fifth ^nerd : 

Entellus vires in ventum efFudit, et ultro 
Ipse gravis graviterque ad terra m pon- 

dere vasto 
Concidit : ut quondam cava concidit, aut 

Erymantho, 
Aut Ida in magna, radicibus eiuta pinus. 

And in the seventh : 

Ceu quondam torto volitans sub verbere 
turbo. 

And again : 

Ceu quondam nivei liquida inter nubila 

cygni 
Cum sese a pastu referunt : 



And in the ninth : 

Qualis in Euboico Baiarum littore quon- 
dam 
Saxea pila cadit : 

And in the twelfth: 

Postquam acies videt Iliacas, atque ag- 

mina Turni, 
Alitis in parvas subito colJecta figuram : 
Quae quondam in bustis aut culminibus 

desertis 
Nocte sedens, serum canitimportuna per 

umbras. 

99. Stipulis.'] Pierius says it is 
stipula in the Roman manuscript. 

100. JEvum.] Aristotle says the 
best age of a horse is from three 
years old to twenty : though both 
horse and mare will begin to couple 
at two, and the horse will continue 
to thirty-three and the mare to 
above forty : "l-^'^og 21 o^ivnv u^^erxi 

oiiTiig, Kxi o^tv£TU(, atrn x.ect yivvoiv . roc 
fAivroi ix.yovoc x-xrct rovrovg 7ovg y^povcvg., 
IXctrro) xdi ac-6iHKaTe^xc, cog W Itt] to 
TcXua-rov, r^iiriig o^ii/u kccI hy^ivirui. 
Kxt avcc^i^aa-i 2i »ki itfi to I^iXticotxtoi 
rx vcyovx yinxv f^iXt^g Irm zUctriv. 
(j^fivii oi iTTTTOg xppviv f^ixpig iTa» 
r^ieix,09rx x.xi r^iav. *i 2i 6iiXsix oxivzrxi 
i^XV' ^-roiv Ti(rffx^XK6VTX, am <rvy.Zxint 
o-pjjsdai' 2ix (Biov yin<r&x'. T«y oxiiet*. Zrj 
yx^ ag bti to ttoXv o f^lv csppjjv Trspi 

T^iXX.OVTX TnVTi £T» , JJ ^6 6^XilX TtMIu 

tZv Ticra-xpxKovrx. lida ds rig IZi'&itri* 

iTTTTOg KXt i'oOOf/.lflKOVTX TTiVTi £T>J. V arrO 

says they should not be younger 
than three, nor older than ten. 
'' Horum equorum, et equarum 
" greges qui habere voluerunt, ut 
" habent aliqui in Peloponneso, et 
'' in Appulia, primum spectare 
" oportet aetatem, quam praecipi- 
" unt. Videndum ne sint minores 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



251 



Praecipue : hinc alias artes, prolemque parentum, 
Et quis cuique dolor victo, quae gloria palmae. 
Nonne vides, cum praecipiti certamine campum 
Corripuere, ruuntque efFusi carcere currus, 
Cum spes arrectag juvenum, exultantiaque 
haurit 105 

Corda pavor pulsans : illi instant verbere torto, 
Et proni dant lora : volat vi fervidus axis. 



age: and then (heir other qua- 
lities, and their otfspring, and 
how they lament being over- 
come, and how they rejoice 
at victory. Do not you see in 
the rapid race, when the cha- 
riots have seized the plain, 
and pouring from the barriers 
rush along, when the hopes 
of the young men are ele- 
vated, and thrilling fear rends 
their beating hearts: they ply 
the twisted lash, and hang 
over their horses with slack- 
ened reins: the fervid axle 
flies swift along. 



" trimse, majores decem annorum." 
Columella says the best a^e of a 
horse is from three to twenty; of 
a mare from two till ten: " Marem 
'* putant minorem trimo non esse 
" idoneum admissurae : posse vero 
" usque ad vigesimum annum pro- 
*' generare, foeminam bimani recte 
" concipere, utposttertium annum 
*' enixa foetum educel, eamque post 
" decimum non esse utilem, quod 
*' ex annosa matre tarda sit, atque 
" iners proles." 

101. Prolemque parentum.'] I have 
ventured to differ from the general 
interpretation of these words. They 
are understood to mean, that you 
are to consider the sire of the colt, 
that you may know whether he is 
of a good breed. Thus Grimoaldus 
paraphrases them: " Post, parentes 
" cujusmodi sint, considerabis, ut- 
'* potequos plerumque sequitur sua 
" soboles." La Cerda explains 
them " quibus parentibus geniti :" 
and Ruseus, " quorum parentum 
*' sint soboles." Dryden translates 
them " note his father's virtues:" 
and Dr. Trapp '' their lineage." I 
believe the Poet means by prolem 
parentum, that we are to observe 
what colts the horse produces. May 
seems to have understood the pas- 
sage in this sense, for he translates 
it '^ his brood." 

102. Dolor.'] In one of the 
Arundelian manuscripts it is color. 

103. Nonne vides, &c.] It is 



easy to see that Virgil had Homer's 
chariot race in his view. He has 
not indeed adorned his description 
with a variety of incidents, which 
are so justly admired in the Greek 
poet. They would have been use- 
less ornaments in this place, where 
only the force and swiftness of the 
horses at that game require to be 
described. It is not any particular 
race but a general description of 
that exercise which the Poet here 
intends : and the noble and poeti- 
cal manner in which he relates it, 
can never be too much admired. 

Prcecipiii certamine.] Pierius 
found conamine, instead of certa- 
mine, in some ancient manuscripts : 
but he thinks it had been written 
at first as a paraphrase, and had 
afterwards slipped into the text. 

We find the same words repeated 
in the fifth ^neid : 

Non lam praecipites bijugo certamine 
campum 

Corripuere, ruuntque effusi carcere cur- 
rus, 

105. Exultantiaque haurit corda 
pavor pulsans.] These words are 
also repeated in the fifth ^Eneid, 
ver. 137, 138. They are much more 
expressive than those which Homer 
has used on the same occasion : 

■ Tlaraffffi ^i 6v{jt,os iKuffTou 

107. Proni dant lora.] Thus in 
the fifth ^neid : 
2 k2 



252 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Now low, now aloft, they 
seem to bie carried on high 
through the plains of air, and 
to mount up to the skies. No 
stop, no stay, but a cloud of 
yellow sand arises; and they 
are wet with the foam and 
breath of those which lollow. 



Jamque humiles, jamque elati sublime videntur 
A era per vacuum ferri, atque adsurgere in 
auras. 109 

Nee mora, nee requies : at fulvae nimbus arenae 
Tollitur : humescunt spumisjflatuquesequentum. 



Nee sic immissis aurigse undantia lora 
Concussere jugis, pronique in verbera 
pendent. 

107. Fervidus axis.'] Thus Ho- 
race; 



Metaque ferv'idis 



Evitata rotis. 

108. Jamque humiles, hcJ] Thus 
Homer : 

"A^fieiTa V eiXkari ftly ^^ov) TiXvaro tou- 
XvfioTii^ri, 

110. FulvcE nimbus arena tollitur.'] 
Thus Homer: 

"ifrar uii^o(iUri u<rrs n(pos m 6vi\Xet : 

And again : 

■ 0/ ^' WtTovTo xoviovTis ift^ieio. 

111. Hiimescunt spumis, flatuque 
sequentum] Thus also Homer : 

Mr. Pope, in his translation of the 
passage in Homer, which Virgil 
here imitates, has greatly improved 
his author's original by borrow- 
ing beauties from the copy. 

At once the][coursers from the barriers 

bound. 
The lifted scourges all at once resound ; 
Their heart, their eyes, their voice they 

send before ; 
And up the champain thunder from the 

shore. 
Thick, where they drive, the dusty 

clouds arise. 
And the lost courser in the whirlwind 

flies: 



Loose on their shoulders the long manes 

reclin'd. 
Float in their speed, and dance upon the 

wind : 
The smoking chariots rapid as they 

bound. 
Now seem to touch the sky, and now 

the ground. 
While hot for fame, and conquest all 

their care, 
(Each o'er his flying courser hung in air,) 
Erect with ardour, pois'd upon the rein, 
They pant, they stretch, they shout along 

the plain. 

The smoking chariots rapid as they 
bound, is taken from volat vi fervi- 
dus axis ; for Homer says no more 
than simply the chariots. Each o'er 
his flying courser hung in air, and 
poisd upon the rein, are not in the 
Greek, but are taken from proni 
dant lora. Erect with ardour is 
taken from spes arrectce juvenum, 
for Homer only says, the charioteers 
stood upon their seats. Had Mr. 
Pope favoured us with a translation 
of this passage of Virgil, I believe 
every impartial reader would have 
given the preference to the Latin 
Poet. But as we cannot shew 
Virgil in the English language 
with equal advantage 3 I shall re- 
present the passage in Homer, 
under the same disadvantages of a 
literal translation : " They all at 
" once lifted up their whips over 
" the horses, and lashed them with 
" their reins, and earnestly encou- 
" raged them with words. They 
" run swiftly over the plain, and 
" are soon distant from the ships. 
" The scattered dust rises under 
" their breasts, like a cloud or 
" storm, and their manes float wav- 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



253 



Tantus amor laudum, tantae est victoria curae. 
Primus Ericthonius currus et quatuor ausus IIS 
Jungere equos, rapidisque rotis insistere victor. 
Fraena Pelethronii Lapithae, gyrosque dedere 



So great is the love of praise, 
BO great is the desire of vic- 
tory. Ericthonius was the first 
who dared to join tour horses 
to a chariot, and to sit victo- 
rious over the rapid wheels. 
The Pelethronian Lapithas 
mounting the horses' backs, 
invented bridles and manag- 
ing* 



*' ing in the wind. The chariots 
*' now approach the foodful earth, 
" and now leap up on high, and 
*' the drivers stand upon their seats, 
** and every one's heart beats with 
'* desire of victory, each encou- 
" rages his horses, and they fly 
" along the plain, raising up the 
'' dust." The reader will now 
easily observe how much more 
animated Virgil's description is, 
than that of Homer. The chariots 
do not barely run over the plain, 
but they seize it, they pour from the 
harriers and rush along, and the 
fervid axle flies. They do not only 
leap zip on high, but seem to be 
carried on high through the plains of 
air, and to mount up to the skies. 
The drivers do not only stand upon 
their seats, but their hopes are ele- 
vated, and they hang over their 
horses with slackened reins. Nor do 
their hearts merely beat with desire 
of victory, but thrilling fear rends 
their beating hearts. 

113. Ericthonius.'] The first in- 
ventors of things are very doubt- 
fully delivered down to us by the 
ancients. Cicero, in his third book 
de Natura Deorum, ascribes the 
invention of the quadrigce to the 
fourth Minerva ; " Minerva prima 
'' quam Apollinis matrem supra 
''diximus: secunda orta Nilo, 
•' quam ^Egyptii Saitae colunt : 
'* tertia ilia quam Jove generatam 
" supra dixiinus : quarta Jove nata 
*' et Coryphe, Oceani filia, quam 
" Arcades Coriam nominant, et 
*' quadrigarum inventricem ferunt." 
Ericthonius however is generally 
allowed to have been the inventor 



of chariots, to hide the deformity 
of his feet. The commentators 
tell a ridiculous story of his being 
produced by a vain endeavour of 
Vulcan to enjoy Minerva, who 
resisted his attempts: and derive 
his name from gg;? strife, and y,^av 
the earth. They make him the 
fourth king of the Athenians. But 
Sir Isaac Newton suspects this 
Ericthonius to be no other than 
Erectheus, and to be falsely added 
as a different king of Athens, to 
lengthen their chronology. I ra- 
ther believe the Ericthonius here 
meant is the son of Dardanus and 
father of Tros; because Pliny men- 
tions him with the Phrygians, to 
whom he ascribes the invention of 
putting two horses to a chariot, as 
Ericthonius invented the putting 
four. " Bigas primum junxit 
'* Phrygum natio, quadrigas Eric- 
'' thonius." 

114. Rapidis-I Pierius says it is 
rapidus in the Roman manuscript. 
I find the same reading in one of 
the Arundellan manuscripts. Ser- 
vius also and Heinsius read rapidus.. 

115. Frcena Pelethronii Lapithce, 
gyrosque dedere.'^ Servius says Pe- 
letronium is the name of a town 
of Thessaly, where the breaking 
of horses was first invented. This 
interpretation is generally received, 
and therefore I have adhered to it 
in my translation. But Pliny 
makes Pelethronius the name of a 
man, and says Bellerophon invented 
the backing of horses, Pelethronius 
bridles and the furniture of horses, 
and the Centaurs of Thessaly the 
fighting on horseback : '' Equo 



S54 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



an«sTo^5aw^h^g1Sl'd Impositl doFso, atquG equitem docuere sub armis 

curvet and prance proudlj'. x l i 

Alike are these labours, alike Insultare solo, ct ffressus fflomerare superbos. 

do the masters require a young ^ o o r 

*^°"^' JEquus uterque labor ; aeque juvenemque ma- 

gistri 



*' vehi Bellerophontem, fraenos et 
'' strata equorum Pelethronium, 
*' pugnare ex equo Thessalos, qui 
*' Centauri appellati sunt, habi- 
" tantes secundum Pelium mon- 
" tem." Ovid however plainly uses 
Pelethronium in the sense which 
Servius has given it : 

Vecte Pelelhronium Macareus in pectus 

adacto 
Stravit Erigdupum. 

Gyrus signifies properly a ivheeling 
about. Tlius it is used, in the 
seventh ^neid, for the wheeling 
round of a top : 

Ceu quondam torto volitans sub verbere 

turbo, 
Quem pueri magno in gyro vacua atria 

circum 
Intenti ludo exercent. 

In the tenth ^neid, when Mezen- 
tius throws several darts at iEneas, 
and then takes a great round, as it 
is expressed by volat ingenti gyro. 

Dixit, telumque intorsit in hostem 

Inde aliud super atque aliud figitque vo- 
lat qtie 
Ingenti gyro. 

It is used in the same manner, in 
the eleventh iEneid, to express 
Camilla's flying from Orsilochus, 
and wheeling round, till she comes 
behind him : 

Orsilochum fugiens, magnumque agitata 

per orhcm 
Eludit^i/70 interior, sequiturque sequen- 

tem. 

In this place therefore it signifies 
the managing a horse, and teaching 
all the proper rounds and turns. 
May has translated this passage. 



The Peletronian Lapithes first found 

The use of backing horses, taught them 
bound, 

And run the ring ; taught riders t' exer- 
cise 

In martial ranks. 

Diyden's translation is. 

The Lapithae to chariots, add the state 
Of bits and bridles; taught the steed to 

bound, 
To run the ring, and trace the mazy 

round. 
To stop, to fly, the riJles of war to 

know: 
T' obey the rider ; and to dare the foe. 

Dr. Trapp's is. 

The Lapithas first, mounting on their 
backs. 

Added the reins ; and taught them un- 
der arms, 

Graceful to form their steps, to wheel, 
and turn. 

Insult the ground, and proudly jiace the 
plain. 

Il6. Equilem.'] Aulus Gellius 
contends that eques signifies the 
same with equus, and quotes a verse 
of Ennius where eques was evi- 
dently used for a horse : 

Denique vi magna quadrupes eques atque 

elephanti 
Projiciunt sese. 

Without doubt, it is the horse, that 
paws, curvets, and prances, but the 
Poet might very well apply these 
actions to the man who rides the 
horse, and makes him perform 
them. 

118. JEquus uterque labor.'] That 
is, the labours of driving chariots, 
and managing the single horse, are 
equal. 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



^5 



Exquirunt, calidumque animis, et cursibus 



acrem. 



Quamvis saepe fuga versos ille egerit hostes, 120 
Et patriam Epirum referat, fortesque Mycenas ; 
Neptunique ipsa deducat origine gentem. 



one that is full of tnetlle, ami 
eager in running. Though 
he may often have turned his 
enemies to flight; and may 
boast of Epirus or strong My- 
cenae for his country; and 
may derive his family from 
the very original of Neptune. 



119. Calidum.'] In one of the 
Arundelian manuscripts it is calidis. 

120. Quamvis sape fuga, &c.] 
That is, let the horse's qualifica- 
tions have been ever so good, let 
him have come from the best coun- 
try in the world, let him be de- 
scended from the noblest race, yet 
he must still be in the flower of his 
age J or else good judges will never 
make choice of him, eitlier for 
riding, or racing. In like manner 
must we be careful, not to choose 
an old horse for a stallion. 

121. Epirum.'] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is Cyprum, 
Epirus was famous for horses. See 
note on book i. ver. 5Q. 

Fortesque Mycenas.'] Mycenas was 
a city of Argia, a region of Pelo- 
ponnesus, in which Agamemnon 
reigned. This country was famous 
for good horses. Thus Horace : 

■ Plurimus in Junonis honorem 

Aptum dicit equis Argos, ditesque My- 



122. Neptunique ipsa deducat ori- 
gine gentem.] In both the Arunde- 
lian manuscripts it is ipsam instead 
of ipsa. Pierius says it is nomen 
instead of gentem in the Roman 
manuscript. I have found meniem 
in an old edition, printed at Venice, 
in 1475. 

Neptune is said to have smitten 
the earth with his trident, and 
thereby to have produced a fine 
horse, to which the Poet alludes, 
in the first book : 

Tuque o, cui prima frementem 



Fudit equum tellus, magno percussa tri- 

denti, 
Neptune. 

There is another fable, that Ceres, 
to avoid the addresses of Neptune, 
took upon her the form of a mare : 
but Neptune discovering her, turned 
himself into a horse, and enjoyed 
her: after which she was delivered 
of a fine horse, which some say 
was the famous Arion, Dryden, in 
his translation, seems to make Vir- 
gil allude to both fables : 

But once again thebatter'd horse beware. 
The weak old stallion will deceive thy 

care : 
Though famous in his youth for force ^ 

and speed, | 

Or was of Argos or Epirian breed, S. 

Or did from Neptune's race or from | 

himself TproceeA. J 

I suppose by himself he must mean 
Neptune himself, who was the na- 
tural father of the horse, according 
to the latter fable. May adheres 
to the former : 

Though nere so nobly born, though oft 
in g^ime 

They won the prize, and for their coun- 
try claime 

Epire, or faui'd Mycenae, or else tooke 

Their birth at first from Neptune's tri- 
dent's stroke : 

And Dr. Trapp : 

If youth and strength he want, th' at- 
tempt is vain ; 

Though oft victorious he has turn'd the 
foes 

To flight, and boasts Epirus, fam*d for 
steeds. 

Or brave Mycenae, as his native soil. 

And ev'n from Neptune's hreed his race 
derives. 



256 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Sv^d.^'hefa.e^vely'dliigeS't His animadversis, instant sub tempus et omnes 

about the time of generation, 
aud ' 



123. His animadversis, &c.] The 
Poet having already described the 
excellency of those two noble 
creatures, the bull and the horse, 
now acquaints us with the method 
of preparing them, for the propa- 
gation of their species ; the male 
is to be well fed, to make him 
plump and lusty, but the female is 
to be kept lean, by a spare diet, 
and much exercise. 

This passage is commonly under- 
stood to relate only to horses and 
mares. Thus Grimoaldus para- 
phrases it : " Postquam mores equo- 
*' rum, et annos deprehenderint 

*' agricolae Insuper armen- 

'' tarii diligentes dedita opera et de 
"^ industria equas emacerabunt." 
Thus also May translates it : 

These things observ'd, at covering time, 

they care 
To make their stallion strongly fat and 

faire. 

And Dryden : 

These things premis'd, when now the 

nuptial tinae 
Approaches for the stately steed to climb ; 

Instructed thus, produce him to the fair; 
And join in wedlock to the longing mare. 

But La Cerda contends, that this 
whole passage relates to hulls and 
cows, which opinion he confirms by 
the Poet's mentioning the asihis and 
the calves soon after. To me it 
appears that this precept relates to 
both species, for, at ver. 49- where 
Virgil begins his subject, he pro- 
fesses to treat of horses and bullocks 
together : 

Seu quis, Olympiacae miratus praemia 

palmae, 
Pascit equos, seu quis fortes ad aratra 

juvencos 
Corpora prsecipue matrum legat. 



He then proceeds to describe the 
good qualities of a cow : 

Optima torvae 



Forma bovis : 

i\nd immediately afterwards sub- 
joins those of a horse : 

Nee non et pecori est idem delectus 

equino. 
Tu modo quos in spem statues submit- 

tere gentis, 
Praecipuum jam inde a teneris impende 

laborem. 

After his long description of the 
good qualities of a horse, he now 
comes to consider the generation 
of these animals, and seems to me 
to blend both species together. In 
the passage now under considera- 
tion, the fatiguing the females 
with running before copulation, 
and in the next passage, the re- 
straining them from leaping, seems 
most applicable to mares ; and the 
mention of the calves, and the asi- 
lus soon after, and the time as- 
signed for the copulation, evidently 
belong to cows. 

123. Instant sub tempus, &c.] 
Varro says he used to feed his bulls 
well for two months before the 
time : '' Tauros duobus mensibus 
'' ante admissuram herba, et palea, 
" ac foeno facio pleniores, et a foe- 
" minis secerno." Columella also 
says the f)ull should be well fed : 
" Pabulum .... tauris adjicitur, 
" quo fortius ineant." He says 
the same of horses : '' Eoque tem- 
" pore, quo vocatur a fosminis, ro- 
'' borandus est largo cibo, et ap- 
" propinquante vere ordeo, ervoque 
" saginandus, ut veneri supersit, 
'^ quantoque fortior inierit, firmiora 
" semina praebeat futurae stirpi:" 
and Palladius also: " Hoc mense 
*' [Martio] saginati, ac pasti ante 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



257 



Jmpendunt curas denso distendere pingui, 124 
Queni legere ducem, et pecori dixere maritum : 
Pubentesque secant herbas, fluviosque minis- 

trant, 
Farraque, ne blando nequeat superesse labori, 
Invalidique patrum referant jejunia nati. 
Ipsa autem macie tenuant armenta volentes: 129 
Atque ubi concubitus primos jam nota voluptas 



bestow all their care id 
plumping the leader and has- 
band of the herd with firm 
fat : and cut tender grass for 
him, and give him plenty of 
water, and corn; lest he should 
be dehcient in his pleasing 
labour, and lest the puny race 
should betray the weakness of 
their fathers. But as for the 
females, they purposely make 
them lean: and when now 
the new known desire solicits 
their first enjoyment, 



" admissarii generosis equabus ad- 
" mittendi sunt." 

1.25. 'Dixere^ It is duxere in the 
Cambridge manuscript, and in an 
old edition, printed at Venice, in 
1482. 

1*26. Pubentes.'] The King's, the 
Cambridge, the Bodleian, one of 
the Arundelian, and both Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts, have Jiorentes. 
Most of the old editions have the 
same reading. Pierius says it is 
pubentes in some ancient manu- 
scripts J which reading is admitted 
also by Heinsius, Masvicius, Ruaeus, 
and several other good editors. La 
Cerda has florenieSf but he thinks 
pubentes better : '* Melius legas 
" pubentes. Nam prata magis con- 
" veniunt, quae delicatis et mollibus 
*^ herbis abundant, quam proceris." 
This agrees with what Columella 
says of the feeding of horses, who 
recommends tender grass, rather 
than that which is ripe: " Gregi- 
" bus autem spatiosa et palustria, 
" nee non montana pascua eligen- 
" da sunt, rigua, nee unquam sic- 
" canea, vacua ve magis, quam stir- 
" pibus impedita, frequenter mo/Zi- 
" bus potius quam proceris herbis 
'^ abundantia." 

127. Nequeat.'] Pierius says it is 
nequeat in the Roman and other 
most ancient manuscripts. The 
King's, one of the Arundelian, and 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts have 



nequeant. The same reading is ad- 
mitted by Paul Stephens, Schreve- 
lius, and several of the old editors, 
but nequeat is generally received. 

129. Made tenuant armenta.'] 
This precept of making the females 
lean, is delivered also by the prose 
writers. Varro says he fed his 
cows sparingly for a month : 
" Propter foeturam haec servare so- 
'^ leo, ante admissuram mensem 
" unum, ne cibo, et potione se im- 
'^ pleant, quod existimantur facilius 
" macrae concipere." Columella 
says the cows are fed sparingly, 
lest too great fatness should make 
them barren : '* Sed et pabulum 
" circa tempus adraissurae subtra- 
" hitur foeminis, ne eas steriles red* 
*' dat nimia corporis obesitas." 

130. Ubi concubitus primos jam 
nota voluptas sollicitat.] The critics 
are not agreed about the sense of 
this passage. Servius says that the 
word nota is put to signify that the 
mares had been covered before, be- 
cause the first time a young mare 
is covered she ought not to be lean : 
" Dicendo nota per transitum tetigit 
*' rem ab aliis diligenterexpressam. 
" Nam equae pullae cum primum 
" coeunt, si macrae sunt, et debili- 
'* tantur, et debiles creant; post 
" primum autem partum tenues 
" esse debent." But I do not find 
this distinction made by the writers 
on husbandry. Ruaeus savs primos 

2l 



258 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



tl d^t'Th'em'from'the Sollicitat, frondesquG negant, et fontibus ar- 

springs. 

cent. 



and jam nota are inconsistent, un- 
less primos relates, not to the first 
covering, but to the beginning of 
the year; **^ Pugnant haec verba, 
"primos et Jam nota. Nisi juxta 
*' alios intelligamus primos, non 
" omnino de primo concubituj sed 
" tantum de prinao et novo anni 
" cujusque redeuntis." Accord- 
ingly his interpretation is, " Et 
*' cum voluptas prius cognita suadet 
'' novum coitum." Dr. Trapp 
translates Ruaeus's note, and adds 
" and that is very untoward." Gri- 
moaldus interprets it, " ubi primum 
" coire cupient :" and La Cerda, 
*' ubi jam sollicitantur voluptate ad 
'*" coitum," taking no notice either 
of primos or Jam nota. Thus also 
May translates it : 

And when they have an appetite 

To venery. 

Dryden follows Ruaeus: 

When conscious of their past delight, 

and keen 
To take the leap, and prove the sport 

agen. 

Dr. Trapp translates jam nota, but 
takes no notice of concubitus pri- 
mes : 

— — When now the known delight 
Solicits their desires. 

Mr. B , in his preface to the 

Georgicks, prefixed to the second 
book, gives quite a new interpreta- 
tion of this passage. " Mr. Dryden," 
says he, " very unlearnedly applies 
** 7iota voluptas to the mare, not 
'* considering that Virgil speaks 
*' here in the person of a groom or 
" farmer, very well acquainted with 
" the passion those creatures are 
" most subject to ; and therefore 



" nota voluptas relates to the far- 
" mer's knowledge, beyond all 
" manner of doubt; and it is worth 
^' observation, through all the 
" Georgicks, that though the piece 
" is what the grammarians call 
'' Didactic, yet the style is generally 
'' Epic." He then gives his own 
translation of the passage now be- 
fore us, in the following words : 

As for the herd, they strive to keep them 

bare, 
And pinch, and draw them down with 

scanty fare -, 
And when the well Jcnown passion of their 

race 
Solicits instantly the first embrace. 
Then they forbid them wandering in the 

woods. 
Cropping the browse, and haunting 

lonely floods : 
Oft in the scorching sun they waste their 

force. 
And urge them panting in the furious 

course : 
Then groans the floor, to pouoded sheaves 

resign'd. 
And empty straws are spurn *d against 

the wind. 

The whole difficulty, about inter- 
preting this passage, seems to have 
risen from not considering, that 
voluptas signifies not only what we 
call pleasure, but also a desire of en- 
joying. In this sense it is plainly 
used in the second Eclogue : 

Torva leaena lupum sequitur, lupus ipse 

capellam : 
Florentem cytisum sequitur lasciva ca- 

pella : 
Te Coridon, o Alexi : trahit sua quern- 

que voluptas : 

And in the tenth .^neid : 

Tantane me tenuit vivendi, nate, vo- 
luptas ? 

where Ruaeus interprets vivendi vo- 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



Saepe etiam cursu quatiunt, et sole fatigantj 



They often shake them also 
with running, and fatigue 
them in the sun, when the 

Cum graviter tunsis gemit area frugibus, et cum f,°,«/3,,ie^^«^"„'d Sn'^ "^'"^ 



luptas, cupido vita ; and Dryden 
translates it j 

What joys, alas ! could this frail being 

give. 
That I have been so covetous to live ? 

Voluptas therefore, in the passage 
now under consideration, signifies 
the desire which now first begins 
to be known by the young mare, 
and requires the care of the farmer, 
to keep her from growing fat. 
This would still be more evidently 
the sense of the passage, if we were 
to read nata instead of nota, as it 
is in the Cambridge manuscript. 

131. Frondesque negant, et fonti- 
bus arcent.'] This is put in opposi- 
tion to 

Puhentesqice secant herhas,Jluviosque mi- 
nistrant. 

Pierius ?ays that in some ancient 
manuscripts it is frovdibus, instead 
of fontibus ; which he justly con- 
demns, 

133, Cum graviter tunsis, &c.] 
Pierius found tonsis in some manu- 
scripts : I find the same reading in 
the Cambridge manuscript, and in 
some of the oldest printed editions. 

The time here mentioned agrees 
better with cows than with mares. 
The beginning of the Roman har- 
vest was about the latter end of 
their June ; and therefore we can- 
not suppose their threshing time to 
have been earlier than July. Now 
this was the very time, when they 
allowed the bull to be admitted to 
the cows. Varro says the time for 
this was from the rising of the 
Dolphin to about forty, days after- 
wards : " Maxime idoneum tempus 
" ad concipiendum a Delphini ex- 
'^ ortu, usque ad dies quadraginta, 



" aut paulo plus. Quae enim ita 
" conceperunt, teraperatissimo anni 
'^ tempore pariunt. Vaccae enim 
" mensi bus decern sunt praegnantes." 
This rising of the Dolphin men- 
tioned by Varro, cannot be the 
morning rising, which began on 
the twenty-seventh of December, 
according to Columella ; '' Sexto 
'' Calendas Januarias Delphi nus in- 
" cipit oriri mane:" or on the 
fourth of January according to 
Pliny: '' Pridie Nonas Delphinus 
" matutino exoritur." It must be 
the evening rising, which was on 
the tenth of June, according to both 
Columella and Pliny: '* Quarto 
'' Idus Delphinus vespere exoritur." 
Therefore the time allotted by 
Varro is from the tenth of June to 
about the twentieth of July. The 
barley harvest was reckoned to be- 
gin about the latter end of June, 
or the beginning of July. Thus 
the cows might be employed in 
treading out the barley, before the 
bull was admitted to them. Colu- 
mella expressly mentions July as 
the proper time : '' Mense Julio 
" foeminae maribus plerumque per- 
'' mittendae, ut eo tempore concep- 
'' tos proximo vere adultis jam pa- 
" bulls edant. Nam decem men- 
'' sibus ventrem perferunt." Pal- 
laciius also assigns the month of 
July as the proper season : " Hoc 
" tempore maxime tauris submit- 
** tendae sunt vaccae, quia decern 
'^'mensium partus sic poterit ma- 
" turo vere concludi." But the 
time for covering mares is much 
earlier, and by no means agrees 
with the time of harvest. Accord- 
ing to Varro, it is from the vernal 
equinox to the solstice, that is, 
from the twenty-fourth or twenty- 
2 l2 



^60 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



the empty chaff is tossed to 
the rising zephyrs. This they 
do that the use of the genial 
field may not be blunted with 
too much indulgence, and 
overspread the sruggish fur- 
rows; but that it may gree- 
dily devour the joy, and re- 
ceive it into the inmost re- 
cesses. Again the care of the 
sires begins to cease, and 
that of the dams to begin. 
When they rove about, in a 
state of pregnancy, and are 
near their time, let no one 
suffer them to draw the yokes 
of the heavy waggons, or 
leap across the way, and run 
swiftly 



Surgentem ad zephyrum paleae jactantur inanes. 
Hoc faciunt, nimio ne luxu obtusior usus 135 
Sit genitali arvo, et sulcos oblimet inertes : 
Sed rapiat sitiens Venerem, interiusque recondat. 
Rursus cura patrum cadere, et succedere ma- 

trum 
Incipit. Exactis gravidae cum mensibus errant, 
Non illas gravibus quisquam juga ducere 

plaustris, 1'^ 

Non saltu superare viam sit passus, et acri 



fifth of their March to the twenty- 
fourth or twenty-fifth of June: 
*' Horum foeturae initium admis- 
" sionis facere oportet, ab aequi- 
" noctio verno ad solstitiura, ut 
*' partus idoneo tempore fiat. Duo- 
'' decimo enim mense, die decirao 
'' aiunt nasci." According to Co- 
lumella, the time is about the ver- 
nal equinox: '' Generosis circa 
" vernum aequinoctium mares jun- 
'' gentur, ut eodem tempore, quo 
*^ conceperint, jam Icetis et her- 
" bidis campis post anni messem 
" parvo cum labore foetum educent. 
*' Nam mense duodecimo partum 
" edunt." Palladius sets down 
March as the season : *' Hoc mense 
*' saginati, ac pasti ante admissarii 
" generosis equabus admittendi 
" sunt." 

135. Hoc faciunt, &c.] In these 
lines the modesty of the Poet is 
very remarkable. His expressions 
are glowing and poetical; and at 
the same time not offensive to the 
chastest ear. Some of his com- 
mentators however have been care- 
ful to explain in the clearest manner 
what their author took care to veil 
decently with figures. Dryden's 
translation is abominably obscene, 
for which he has been justly cor- 
rected by Mr. B . Dr. Trapp, 



through fear of offending in the 
same manner, has comprised these 
three in two very dull lines : 

Lest too much luxury and ease should 

close 
The pores, and dull the hymeneal soil. 

136. Sit.'] In one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts it is sint, which cannot 
be right. 

Arvo.'] In an old edition, printed 
at Venice, in 1475, it is auro. 

Et sulcos.'] In the Basil edition 
of 1586, it is sulcosque. 

137. Rapiat Venerem.] Thus 
Horace : 

i Venerem incertara rapientis. 

138. Rursus cura patrum, &c.] 
The Poet having given us full 
instructions about the care of the 
male, now tells us that after con- 
ception, the whole care is to be 
transferred to the female. He then 
takes occasion to mention the Asi- 
lus, which is a terrible plague to 
the cows in Italy. 

140. Non illas gravibus quisquam 
Juga ducere plaustris . . . sit passus.] 
Tiius Varro: " Cum concejierunt 
'' equae, videndum ne aut laborent 
" plusculura, &c." 

In one of Dr.iNIead's manuscripts 
it is gravidis instead of gravibus. 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



S^ 



Carpere prata fuga, fluviosque innare rapaces. 
Saltibus in vacuis pascant, et plena secundum 
Flumina,muscus ubi, et viridissma gramine ripa: 
Speluncaeque tegant, et saxea procubet umbra. 
Est lucos Silari circa, ilicibusque virentem 146 
Plurimus Alburnum volitans, cui nomen asilo 
Roman um est, CEstron Graii vertere vocantes ; 



over the meadows, and swim 
the rapid streams. Let them 
feed in open lawns, and near 
full rivers; where the banks 
are mossy, and green with 
grass ; and let there be caves 
ti) shelter, and rocks to shade 
them. About the groves of 
Silarus, and Alburnus, green 
with holm-oaks, there is great 
plentj' of a sort of flying in- 
sects, which the Romans call 
Asilus, but the Greeks have 
formed the name CEstros for 
it: 



143. Saltibvs.'} See the note on 
verse 471. of the second Georgick. 

Pascant."] In one of the Arunde- 
lian manuscripts it is pascunt. 

Plena secundum fiuminu.'] The 
Poet recommends full rivers, that 
the pregnant cattle may not strain 
themselves with stooping to drink. 

144. Viridissima gramine ripa."] 
Thus Varro, speaking of cows, 
" Eas pasci oportet in locis viri- 
" dibus, et aquosis." 

In one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts 
it is germirie instead of gramine. 

146. Est lucos.'] Seneca reads 
Et lucum. 

Silari.] Silarus was the name 
of a river, which divided the coun- 
try of the Picentini, from that of 
the Lucani. Is now called Selo. 

Circa.] Seneca resuls juxia. 

Ilicibusque virentem.] The epithet 
virentem is very proper j for the 
holm-oak, or ilex, is an evergreen. 

147. Plurimus] '^This plurimus," 
says Dr. Trapp, " may seem odd : 
" for Asilus is plainly understood 
** as agreeing with it. And then 
" Asilus, cui nomen Asilo looks 
*' strange. But we must recur to 
'* the sense J which is the same, as 
*' if it had been Plurima musca cui 
'" nomen Asilo.'' Asilus cui nomen 
Asilo is La Cerda's interpretation, 
which, I must acknowledge, seems 
a little strange. But surely pluri- 
mus agrees with volitans, which 
is used here as a noun substantive. 
Thus Servius interprets this pas- 



sage ; ** Ordo talis est, circa lucos 
*' Silari Jluminis Lucanias, et Alhur- 
" num ejus montem est plurimus vo- 
" litans: ac si diceret, est multa 
" musca. Volitans autem modo 
" nomen est, non participium." 

147. Alburnum.] Alburnus was 
the name of a mountain near the 
river Silarus. 

Cui nomen Asilo.] Asilo is here 
put in the dative case, after the 
manner of the Greeks. Thus we 
fit^d in the fourth Georgick : 

Est etiam flos in pratis, cui noynen Amelia 
Fecere Agricolae : 

And in the first ^neid : 

At puer Ascanius, cui nunc cognomen 

lillo 
Additur : 

And in the ninth : 

Fortemque manu fudisse Numa- 

num 
Cui Remulo cognomen erat. 

148. Romanum est.] Est is left 
out in the King's, in one of the 
Arundelian, and in one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts. 

CEstron Graii vertere vocantes.] 
Servius understands these words to 
mean, that the Greeks called this 
insect cla-r^og, from its whizzing 
noise : for he thinks it cannot be 
the Poet's meaning, that the Greeks 
translated it from the Latin, be- 
cause the Greek is the more ancient 
language : '' Vertere ex soni si- 
" militudine, onomatopoieam fe- 



262 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



it stings, and makes 
zing noise; with whi( 
herds bein^ terrified fly out 
of the woods : 



with which wh'ljre Asper, acerba sonans; quo tota exterrita sylvis 



"cere. Non enim possumus acci- 
" pere, ex Latina lingua mutavere, 
'' cum constet Graecam primam 
" fuisse." It is probable, however, 
that this insect might have been 
first taken notice of by the ancient 
inhabitants of Italy. For that 
country was anciently celebrated 
for the finest kine: and Timaeus, 
as he is quoted by Varro, informs 
us, that the ancient Greeks called 
bulls hocXiv?, and thence called the 
country Italy, because it abounded 
with the finest bulls and calves : 
" Vide quid agas, inquam, Vacci. 
" Nam bos in pecuaria, maxima 
'' debet esse auctoritate: praesertim 
" in Italia, quae a bubus nomen 
*' habere sit existimata. Graecia 
" enim antiqua, ut scribit Ti- 
" maeus, tauros vocabant hecXovg, a 
'^ quorum multitudine, et pulchri- 
*' tudine, et foetu vitulorum Italiam 
*' dixerunt." 'J'o this we may add, 
that Seneca understood the Poet to 
mean, that Asilus was the ancient 
name, but that the Greek name 
oestrus or cestrum was then received 
instead of it: *' Hunc quem Graeci 
" oestrum vocant, pecora peragen- 
" tern, et totis saltibus dissipantem, 
*' asilum nostri vocabant. Hoc 
«f Virgilio licet credas: 

" Et lucum Silari juxta, iHcibusque vi- 

" rentem 
" Pluri7nus Alhurnum volitans , ctii nomen 

" asilo 
" Romanum est, a strum Grceci verier e 

" vocantes, 
" Asper, acerba sonans, quo tota exterrita 

" sylvis 
" Diffugiunt armenta. 
" Puto intelligi istud verbum interisse." 

Varro calls this insect Tabanus : 
'' Itaque quod eas aestnte tahani 
*' concitare solent, et bestiolae quae- 
" dam minutae sub cauda, ne con- 



*' citentur, aliqui solent includere 
'' septis." And Pliny informs us, 
that it is called both Tabanus and 
Asilus: " Reliquorum quibusdam 
" aculeus in ore, ut asilo, sive ta- 
" barium dici placet." 

The history of this insect has 
been delivered in so confused a 
manner by authors, that I could 
meet with no satisfaction about it, 
till I was favoured by Sir Hans 
Sloane, Bart, with the perusal of 
a book in titled Esperienze, ed Osser- 
vazioni intorno all Origine, Sviluppi, 
e Costumi di varj Insetti, con altre 
spettanti alia Naturale, e Medica 
Storia,fatte da Antonio Vallisnieri, 
Publico Professore primario di Me- 
dicina Teorica nelV Universitd di 
Padoa: printed at Padua, in 1723, 
in 4to. This curious author informs 
us, from his own observation, that 
the Assillo, as he calls it, is a flying 
insect, in shape somewhat resem- 
bling a wild bee or wasp, without 
any sting, or proboscis in the 
mouth. It has two membranace- 
ous wings, with which it makes 
a most horrible whizzing. The 
belly is terminated by three long 
rings, one less than another, from 
the last of which proceeds a for- 
midable sting. This sting is com- 
posed of a tube, through which the 
Ggg is emitted, and of two augers, 
which make way for the tube to 
penetrate into the skin of the 
cattle. These augers are armed 
with little knives, which prick 
with their points, and cut with 
their edges, causing intolerable pain 
to the animal, that is wounded by 
them. But this pain is not all ; 
for at the end of the sting, as at 
the end of a viper's tooth, and of 
the sting of wasps, bees, and hor- 



GEORG. LIB. III. 26S 

Diffugiunt armenta ; furit mugitibus asther 150 SethelyT'"^* ^"""""^ 



nets, issues forth a venomous li- 
quor, which irritates, and inflames 
the fibres of the wounded nerves, 
and causes the wound to become 
fistulous. This fistula seems to be 
kept open by the egg, after the 
manner of an issue. 

The egg is hatched within the 
fistula, and the worm continues 
there, till it is ready to turn to a 
chrysalis, receiving its nourishment 
from the juice, which flows from 
the wounded fibres. These worms 
remain nine or ten months under 
the skin, and then being arrived 
almost to perfection, they come 
out of their own accord, and creep 
into some hole, or under some 
stone, and there enter into the 
state of a chrysalis, in which con- 
dition they lie quiet for some time, 
and at last come forth in the form 
of the parent fly. 

149. Asper.'] I take this word 
to be designed to express the sharp- 
ness of the sting. 

Acerba sonans.'] This relates to 
the horrible whizzing of this ani- 
mal. 

Qjuo tota exterrita sylvis, &c.] 
Homer represents the suitors, who 
had long fought with Ulysses, on 
Minerva's raising up her shield, 
flying like oxen from the oestrus. 

Ah TOT 'A^avait) (p^Kftfifi^oTos Aiyt^' ay- 

'T-^o'hv l| fl^fl^Jjs* ruv Ss (p^ins lifTeirihv. 
OJ V i^sfiovTt fiiTo. fiiya^iv (iois as otyi- 

XuTut, 
Taff fAtv T aloXos ^uTT^os i<po^(Jt.i^6i)i ttovtierii 
' Sl^n Iv iloc^ivij, oTi T ijfiUTK fAKx^a jrs- 

XOVTUI. 

Now Pallas shines confcss'd ; aloft she 



The arm of vengeance o'er their guilty- 
heads ; 
The dreadful -^gis blazes in their eye ; 



Aniaz'd they see, they tremble, and they 

fly; 
Confus'd, distracted, thro* the rooms 

they fling. 
Like oxen madded by the breeze's 

sting, 
When sultry days, and long, succeed 

the gentle spring. 

Mr. Pope. 



Vallisnieri relates, that as four 
oxen were drawing a very heavy 
carriage, one of them being stricken 
in the back by an Assillo, all four 
ran so furiously, that being come to 
a river's side, they threw them- 
selves in headlong. The same 
author tells us, that in a fair of 
cattle, on the mountains of Reggio, 
the oxen hearing the noise of 
some of these animals, though 
they were tied, and had their 
keepers by them, began first to 
roar, then to toss, and wreathe 
themselves about in a strange man- 
ner: at last they broke loose, did 
a vast deal of mischief, drove all 
the people out of the fair, and fled 
away themselves with horrid bel- 
lowings. 

He observes that these insects 
sometimes infest horses, that live 
in mountainous places, and feed at 
large in the groves and fields : 
but not those which are kept in 
stables and curried. This confirms 
what Varro relates, that some keep 
their oxen in the stalls, to preserve 
them from these insects. Rubbing 
the cattle well preserves them from 
this plague : for, as Vallisnieri tells 
us, they are never found in the 
legs, or other parts, where the 
cattle can reach with their tongue 
or their tail j but on the back and 
flanks, and sometimes about the 
shoulders and on the neck. 



264 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and the woods, and the banks 
of drj' Tanagrns. With this 
monster did Juno formerly 
exercise severe wrath, when 
she studied a plague for the 
Inachian heifer. Do j'ou also 
take care to drive it from the 
pregnant cattle, and feed 
your herds, when the sun is 
newly risen, or when the 
stars lead on the night; for it 
is most severe in the noon- 
day heat. After the cow has 
brought forth, all the care is 
transferred to the calves : and 
first they mark them with 
burning irons, to distinguish 
their sorts; which they choose 
to keep for breeding, which 
they keep consecrated to the 
altars, and which to cleave 
the ground, 



Concussus, silvaeque, et sicci ripa Tanagri. 
Hoc quondam monstro horribiles exercuit iras 
Inachiag Juno pestem meditata juvencae. 
Hunc quoque, nam mediis fervoribus acrior 

instat, 
Arcebis gravido pecori, armentaque pasces 155 
Sole recens orto, aut noctem ducentibus astris. 
Post partum, cura in Vitulos traducitur omnis : 
Continuoque notas, et nomina gentis inurunt : 
Et quos aut pecori raalint submittere habendo, 
Aut aris servare sacros, aut scindere terram, 160 



151. Sicci ripa Tanagri.'] The 
Tanagrus or Tanager, now called 
Negro, is a river of Lucania, rising 
from the mountain Alburnus. 

Dryden's translation makes these 
words an extravagant rant: 

Tanagrus hastens thence : and leaves 
his channel dry. 

152. Hoc quondam monstro, &c.] 
lo the daughter of Inachus was be- 
loved by Jupiter, who, to conceal 
her from Juno, turned her into a 
cow. But Juno discovering the 
deceit sent an cestrus to torment lo, 
with which being stung she fled 
into Egypt, where being restored 
to her former shape, she was mar- 
ried to king Osiris, and after her 
death was worshipped as a goddess, 
under the name of Isis. 

155. Pecori^ In both Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts it is pecorique : but 
the que is injudiciously added, to 
avoid a synaloepha. See the note 
on book i. ver. 4. 

156. Astris.'] In the Cambridge 
manuscript, and in some of the old 
printed editions, it is austris. 

157. Post partum, &c.] The 
Poet having first described the care 
that is to be taken of the sire be- 
fore copulation, then of the dam 



during her pregnancy, now tells us, 
that all our care is to be bestowed 
on the young ones, as soon as 
they are brought into the world, 
and begins with the calves. PieriuS" 
reads 

Post partum in vitulos cura traducitur 
omnis : 

but he says it is 

Post partum cura in vitulos traducitur 
omnis 

in the Roman, the Medicean, the 
Lombard, and some other manu- 
scripts. He says also, that in the 
oblong manuscript, which Pompo- 
nius Lsetus called his delici(E, it is 
rfeflfMcfiur, instead oi traducitur ; but 
he thinks the common reading is 
best. 

158. Continuo^ See the note on 
ver. 75. 

Notas et nomina gentis inurunt.] 
The burning marks upon cattle is 
a very ancient custom, to which 
we find frequent allusions. 

159. Malint.] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is malit ; in 
the other it is malunt. 

160. Sacros:] The King's, the 
Bodleian, one of the Arundelian 
manuscripts, most of the old edi- 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



5^65 



Et campum horrentem fractis invertere glebis. w"?h'broC cio'ds"^!1?e r«l 

• • 1 , of the herd graze in the green 

Caetera pascuntur virides arnienta per herbas : meadows: 



tions, and Paul Stephens, have sa- 
cris. Pierius reads sacris; but he 
says it is sacros in the Roman and 
Mediceau manuscripts, which he 
thinks a good reading. He adds, 
that it was sacros in the Lombard 
manuscript, but had been altered 
to sacris. Sacros is generally re- 
ceived, and is more poetical. 

162. Caetera pascuntur virides ar- 
menta per herbas.'] This is gene- 
rally understood to mean, that the 
cattle which are not designed either 
for breeding, sacrifices, or labour, 
have no mark set upon them, and 
so are sufiFered to graze undis- 
tinguished. Thus Grimoaldus pa- 
raphrases it: ''At haee quidem 
" animalia domi, et ad manum 
" servant, et custodiunt, caetera, 
'* quae neque sunt admissurae ido- 
" nea, nee sacrificiis apta, nee agri- 
" culturae accommodata, in agris, 
" pratiscfue, sine ulla doniandi cura, 
'* libere vagari sinant.'^ Thus also 
Dryden translates it : 

The rest for whom no lot is yet decreed, 
May run in pastures, and at pleasure 
feed: 

and Dr. Trapp: 

The rest promiscuous, and unnoted feed 
On the green meadows. 

" Unnoted,'' says he, " for that is 
" manifestly implied; though not 
" expressed. C(Etera pascuntur , &c. 
" subaud. indiscriminatim. Those 
" of which he was speaking before 
*' were to have marks set upon 
*' them : and these by the word 
" caetera are set in opposition to 
" them." La Cerda observes, that 
this is the general interpretation 
received by all the commentators 3 
with which however he declares 



himself not to be satisfied. He is 
at a loss to understand, what 
fourth sort is meant, that is not 
intended either for breeding, sacri- 
fice, or labour; unless any one 
should pretend it is designed for 
the shamble. But then, says he, 
these are bred at home, and not 
sufiFered to feed at large. He then 
proposes a new interpretation, that 
by armenta the Poet means cow- 
calves. This he confirms by a pre- 
ceding passage in this Georgick, 
where we are told that the bull is 
to be well fed, but the cow to be 
kept lean : 

Ipsa autem macie tenuant armenta vo- 
lentes. 

Here, says he, the cows are called 
armenta, as distinct from the bulls. 
It is therefore this learned com- 
mentator's opinion, that the Poet 
would have the bull-calves kept at 
home, and brought up with great 
care, but that he has no regard for 
the cow-calves, and allows them to 
ramble at large in the meadows. 
I take neither of these interpreta- 
tions to be the Poet's meaning. 
The first is suflficiently refuted al- 
ready by La Cerda : and the other 
seems to labour under some diffi- 
culties. The cow-calves are surely 
as much to be preserved for breed- 
ing, as the bull-calves : and our 
Poet himself seems, in another 
place, to think the greatest regard 
is to be had to the cows : 

Seu quis fortes ad aratra juvencos ; 

Corpora prascipue matrum legat. 

I have thought therefore of an- 
other interpretation, which seems 
to me to express the Poet's true 
meaning. He has just told us, the 
2 M 



966 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



bot those which you would 
form for the design and use of 
agricnituie, you must teach 
whilst ihey are yet but calves; 
and begin to tame them, 
whilst their youn^ minds are 
tractable, whilst their age is 
governable. And first hang 
loose collars of slender twigs 
about their necks; and when 
their free necks have been ac- 
customed to servitude, match 
bullocks of 



Tu quos ad studium, atque usum formabis 

agrestem, 
Jam vitulos hortare, viamque insiste domandi, 
Dum faciles animi juvenum, dum mobilis aetas. 
Ac primum laxos tenui de vimine circles 166 
Cervici subnecte ; dehinc, ubi libera colla 
Servitio assuerint, ipsis e torquibus aptos 



calves are to be distinguished into 
three classes, in ver. 159, 1^0, and 
161. I take a new sentence to be- 
gin with ver. l62. Ccetera pascuniur, 
&c. The rest of the herd, tliat is, 
those which are designed for breed- 
ing, or sacrifice, viay feed at large 
in the meadows, for they need no 
other care, than to furnish them 
with sufficient nourishment, till 
they arrive at their due age. But 
those, which are designed for agricul- 
ture, require more care : they must 
be tamed, whilst they are but calves, 
and tractable in their tender years. 
According to this interpretation, 
the Poet has mentioned how all 
the three sorts are to be treated, 
and has not omitted two of them, 
as La Cerda imagines: ''Dixit 
" destinandos alios ad sobolem, 
" alios ad sacra, alios ad agricul- 
" turam : nunc, omissis priniis et 
" mediis, loquitur de extremis, qui 
" servantur ad agricuUuram." 

l63. Tu quos ad studium, &c.] 
Dryden's translation represents the 
Poet speaking after a manner most 
strangely figurative. He talks of 
sending the calf to school, keeping 
him from seeing the bad examples 
of the world, and instructing him 
with moral precepts. For all this 
he has not the least countenance 
from his author, except it be in the 
words studium and juvenum : 

Set him betimes to school; and let him 

be 
Instructed there in rides of husbandry : 



While yet his youth is flexible and green ; 
Nor had examples of the world Jias seen. 
Early begin the stubborn child to break ; 

Thy flattering method on the youth pur- 
sue: 

Join'd with his school-fellows by two and 
two. 

E'er the licentious youth be thus re- 

strain'd. 
Or moral precepts on their ?ninds luive 

gain'd. 

l64. Jam vitulos hortare.'] Colu- 
mella says they ought not to be 
younger than three, or older than five 
years: '' Verum neque ante ter- 
" tium, neque post quintum annum 
" juvencos domari placet, quoniam 
"ilia aetas adhuc tenera est, haec 
" jam praedura." That author gives 
a particular account of the manner 
in which the ancients tamed their 
bullocks, too long to be here in- 
serted. Thereadermay consult the 
second chapter of the sixth book. 

166. Laxos] In the King's ma- 
nuscript it is lapsos. 

167. Dehinc] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is deinde. 

168. Ipsis e torquibus.] This 
particular instruction, of fastening 
the bullocks by the collars, may 
seem superfluous to those, who are 
not informed, that it was a custom 
among the ancients, to yoke the 
bullocks together by the horns. 
This is mentioned by Columella, as 
being in use in his days, in some 
of the provinces ; though, he says, 
it was justly condemned by most 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



261 



Junge pares, et coge gradum conferre juvencos. 
Atque illis jam saepe rotae ducantur inanes 170 
Post terram, et summo vestigia pulvere signent. 
Post valido nitens sub pondere faginus axis 
Instrepat, et junctos temo trahat aereus orbes. 



equal strength together, and 
take care to fasten them by 
the collars, and make them 
step together. And now let 
them otten draw empty wheels 
along the ground, and mark 
the top of the <lu?t wiili their 
footsteps. Afterwards let the 
beechen axle labonring groan 
under a heavy load, and let 
the brazen pole draw the join- 
ed wheels. 



writers of agriculture: "Nam illud, 
*' quod in quibusdam provinciis 
" usurpatur, ut cornibus illigetur 
*'jugum, fere repudiatum est ab 
** omnibus, qui praecepta rusticis 
*' conscripserunt, neque immerito : 
" plus enim queunt pecudes collo 
'' et pectore conari, quam cornibus. 
" Atque hoc modo tota mole cor- 
'* poris, totoque pondere nituntur : 
" at ilia, retractis et resupinis capi- 
*• tibus excruciantur, eegreque terras 
*' summam partem levi admodum 
'* vomere sauciant." 

" In the most ancient oblong 
*' manuscript, it is de torquibus ; in 
*^ the Lombard manuscript, it is 
" ipsis et torquibus aptos." Pierius. 
In the King's manuscript it is ex 
torquibus, and in one of Dr. Mead's 
it is cum torquibus. 

Aptos.'] The critics agree, that 
aptos, m this place, signifies the 
same as aptatos or ligatos ; for it is 
derived from otxTu, to bind. 

169. Junge pares.'] Varro says 
you must yoke bullocks of equal 
strength, lest the stronger should 
wear out the weaker: " Ut viribus 
" magnis sint, ac pares, ne in opere 
*' firmior imbecilliorem conficiat." 
Columella also delivers the same 
precept : " Item custodiendum est, 
" ne in corporatione, vel statura, 
*' vel viribus impar cum valentiore 
**jungatur: nam utraque res in- 
*' feriori celeriter affert exitium." 

170. Rotce ducantur inanes.'] In 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts it 
is ducuntur. 

By empty wheels is meant either 
empty carriages, or wheels without 



any carriage laid upon them. Varro 
mentions drawing empty carts : 
'* Quos ad vecturas item instituen- 
" dum, ut inania primum ducant 
" plaustra." Columella advises, 
that they should first draw only 
a branch of a tree, with sometimes 
a weight added to it, then be put 
to a cart, and, when they are quite 
tame, to a plough : '' Per hsec 
" blandimentatriduo fere mansues- 
" cunt, jugumque quarto die acci- 
'* piunt, cui ramus illigatur, et 
" temonis yice trahitur : interdum 
" et pondus aliquod injungitur, ut 
" majore nisu laboris exploretur 
*" patientia, post ejusmodi experi- 
" menta vacuo plostro subjungendi, 
'' et paulatim longius cum oneribus 
*' producendi sunt. Sic perdomiti 
" mox ad aratrum instituantur, sed 
" in subactoagro, nestatim difficul- 
'" tatem operis reformident, neve 
'* adhuc tenera coUa dura proscis- 
" sione terrae contundant." 

171. Summo vestigia pulvere sig- 
nent.] These words are used to ex- 
press the lightness of the carriage, 
which the untamed bullocks are 
first put to draw. The weight is 
to be so inconsiderable, that it will 
not cause them to make deep im- 
pressions in the dust. 

172. Valido nitens sub pondere,] 
After they have been tried with 
empty carriages, they are to be put 
to. draw such as are heavy, as we 
have seen just now, in the quota- 
tion from Columella. 

173. Junctos temo trahat cereus or- 
bes.] Pierius found vinctos, in the an- 
cient manuscripts,instead oi junctos 

2 M 2 



p. VIRGILIT MARONIS 



Jamed baiiU's^ndf^niy "be Intcrca puH indomitae non gramina tantum, 

fed witb grass, or the tender t /» i i i 

sedT°*^^""**'^^'°'^ '"""''^ ^^ vescas salicum irondes, ulvamque palus- 



trem, 



175 



Brazen is frequently used to sig- 
nify strong. Dr. Trapp translates 
cereus, hound with brass: 

Then let the beachen axis, bound with 

brass, 
Move slow, and groan beneath the pon- 

d'rous load. 

175. Ulvamque palustrem.'] " It 
'* is sylvam in the Roman manu- 
" script : but ulvam is generally 
" received." Pierius. 

It is not certain what plant is 
the iilva of the ancients : I have 
interpreted it sedge; which is a ge- 
neral name for large weeds, that 
grow in marshes, and near the 
banks of rivers. Most writers sup- 
pose the ulva to be much like the 
alga, or sea-wrack; and that they 
differ chiefly in this j that the alga 
grows in salt water, and the ulva 
in fresh. But this, I think, is cer- 
tain j that there is no fresh-water 
plant, which resembles the sea- 
wrack, and at the same time agrees 
with what the ancients have said 
of their ulva. Caesalpinus supposes, 
and not without reason, that the 
ulva is the same with the typha, 
which we call caVs-tail, or reed- 
mace. It is a very common weed 
with us, and in Italy also, in stag- 
nant waters: it grows to a consi- 
derable height, and bears a head 
at the top of the stalk, which when 
ripe aflfords a great deal of down. 
In the passage now under consi- 
deration, it is called a marshy plant, 
" ulvamque palustrem.'* In the 
eighth Eclogue it is described as 
growing near a rivulet : 

Propter aquee rivum viridi procumbit in 
ulva. 

In the second ^Eneid Sinon men- 



tions his lying hid amongst the 
ulva, in a muddy lake : 

Llmosoque lacu, per noctem, obscurus in 

ulva, 
Delitui. 

The cat's-tail grows only where 
there is mud, and is tall enough 
to conceal any person. In the 
sixth iEneid it is represented as 
growing by a muddy river's side, 
and the colour is said to be glau- 
cous, or bluish green, which agrees 
also with the cat's-tail : 

Tandem trans Jluvium incolumes vatem- 

que virumque 
Informi limo, glaucaque exponit in ulva. 

Ovid makes frequent mention of 
the ulva, as a marshy plant. In the 
fourth book of the Metamorphosis, 
a pool is described as being re- 
markably clear, by the negative 
quality of not having any ulva 
in it: 

. Videt hie stagnum lucentis ad 

imum 
Usque solum lymphae : non illic canna 

palustris. 
Nee steriles ulvce, nee acuta cuspide 

junci. 

In the sixth book, it is called de- 
lightful to the marshes : 

Agrestes illic fruticosa legebant 

Vimina cum juncis, gratamque paludibus 
ulvam. 

We find it mentioned also as a 
water plant, in the eighth book : 



Tenet ima lacunae 

Lenta salix, ulvceque leves : 

And in the fourteenth : 



Ljeva de parte canori 



JEolidae tumulum, et loca foeta palustri- 
hus ulvis 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



269 



Sed frumenta manu carpes sata : nee tibi foetae, i"ih^ySrhandTand'ie!''nS 

TIC . • 'It. ^ , • your fruitful cows, as in the 

More patrum, nivea implebunt mulctraria daya of our fathers, tiii me 

* Pitils with snowy milk; bat 

Vflff»»> • let them spend all their ndfiers 

va,v,v.«7, ^jj ,jjj,j^ beloved offspring. 

O J X i • J 1 .1 "BatK your study bends rather 

feed tota in dulces consument ubera natos. w war, and fierce troops. 
Sin ad bella magis studium, turmasque feroces, 



Littora Cumarum, vivacisque antra Si- 

bylJae 
Intrat. 

In the eighth book, he speaks of a 
bed being made of the ulva: 

In medio torus est de mollibus 

ulvis 
Impositus lecto, sponda, pedibusque 

salignis. 

This agrees with what Matthiolus 
tells us, that the poorer people in 
Italy make their beds of the down 
of the cat's-tail, instead of feathers : 
and the same author informs us, 
that there is hardly a standing 
water in Italy, which does not 
abound with cat's-tail. 

176. Frumenta vianu carpes sata.] 
Servius interprets this/arraoo, that 
is, a mixed provender of wheat bran, 
and barley meal. Grimoaldus also 
paraphrases it farra svppeditabis et 
ordea. La Cerda is of the same 
opinion : which he strengthens by 
a quotation from Varro, where he 
tells us, a calf of six months old 
is to be fed with wheat bran, bar- 
ley meal, and tender grass : *' Se- 
" mestribus vitulis objiciunt fur- 
'* fures triticeos, et farinam ordea- 
** ceam, et teneram herbam." Ruaeus 
differs from the other commenta- 
tors: he understands the Poet to 
mean young corn. This he con- 
firms by the words carpes sata, 
which plainly express the gather- 
ing of the tender blade j and by 
ver. 205, where he forbids giving 
farrago to the cattle before they are 
tamed. Hence he concludes, either 
that Virgil contradicts Varro, or 



else that he means that the farrago 
should be given sparingly to the 
cattle, before they are tamed, and 
plentifully afterwards. Dryden fol- 
lows Ruaeus : 

Their wanton appetites not only feed 
With delicates of leaves, and marshy 

weed. 
But with thy sipkle reap the rankest land. 
And minister the blade, with bounteous 

hand. . 

Dr. Trapp is of the same opinion : 

Meanwhile with grass alone, and leaves, 

and sedge 
Feed not thy untam'd bullocks; but 

with com 
Cropp'din the blade. 

Nec tibifcetoB, &c.] The people 
in the earliest ages lived much 
upon milk j and therefore defrauded 
their calves of great part of their 
natural nourishment. This practice 
Virgil condemns, and advises those, 
who breed calves, to let them suck 
their fill. 

177. Mulctraria.] So I read with 
Heinsius, and some of the oldest 
editors. I find the same reading 
in the King's, the Cambridge, and 
both Dr. Mead's manuscripts. Pi- 
erius found mulctraria also in the 
Roman, the oblong, and some other 
manuscripts. In theMedicean and 
some others he found multralia. He 
found rnulgaria also in some of the 
most ancient copies -, and observes, 
that in the Lombard manuscript 
multraria had been slightly erased, 
and rnulgaria substituted for it. 

179. Sin ad bella, &c.] The 



270 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



or to whirl along the Al- 
phcan streams of Pisa, and to 
drive the flying chariots in 
the grove of Jupiter; the first 
labour of the horse is to see 
the spirit and arms of war- 
riors, and to endure the trum- 
pets, and to bear the rattling 
wheel, and to hear the sound- 
ing bridles in the stable; then 
lo rejoice more and more at 
the kind applauses of his mas- 
ter, and to love the sound of 
clapping his neck. Let him 
hear these, when he is first of 
all weaned from his dam, and 
let him 3'ield his mouth to 
soft bits, whilst he is weak, 
and yet trembling, and yet 
of tender years. But when 
three summers are past and 
the fourth is t>eguD, 



Aut Alphea rotis praelabi flumina Pisae, 180 
Et Jovis in luco currus agitare volantes ; 
Primus equi labor est, animos atque arma videre 
Bellantum, lituosque pati, tractuque gementem 
Ferre rotam, et stabulo frsenos audire sonantes. 
Turn magis atque magis blandis gaudere ma- 
gistri 185 

Laudibus, et plausae sonitum cervicis amare. 
Atque haec jam primo depulsus ab ubere matris 
Audiat, inque vicem det mollibus ora capistris 
Invalidus, et jamque tremens, et jam inscius aev i 
At, tribus exactis, ubi quarta accesserit asstas, 



Poet now proceeds to give an ac- 
count of the breeding of horses. 

180. Alphea.] See ver. I9. 
Pises.'] Strabo tells us, that it 

has been questioned, whether there 
ever was such a city as Pisa, affirm- 
ing it to have been the name only 
of a fountain: Tivlg 21 Trixtv filv ev- 

2ifJt.leAV yiyov'iveii Uia-xv (px<rli. uvxt yup 
»e6M7(r6xi BJ<rxv, KvKVirlov ttAjj^ov tto- 

Mag (Aiyia-tvig tZv oktco. It is con- 
fessed however, that it was an- 
ciently the name of a country in 
that part of Elis, through which 
the river Alpheus flowed, and in 
which stood the famous temple of 
Jupiter Olympius. 

181. Et Jovis in luco.] In one 
of Dr. Mead's manuscripts it is si 
instead of et. 

The commentators seem to have 
passed over this grove of Jupiter in 
silence. We learn however from 
Strabo, that it belonged to the tem- 
ple of Jupiter Olympius. He says 
the Olympian temple is in the Pisean 
region, not quite three hundred 
stadia from the city Elis; that it 
has a grove of wild olives before it, 
in which is a place for races: AeiTrev 

^ le-TlV ilTTlTv TTi^i T?5 'OXv^TTiXg XUi rifi 
iU TCV? HXUOVg UTiCCVTUV (^iTXTTToia-ieOi. 



1^5 ' HX<oo5 IXciT'tovg 73 rpiXKOTtovg ot- 
xxoiug fiuv itg rhv T^t^v>^ix«.li¥ daXxvcxi 

l*iTX%V 2vTlUg, XXt fiiTT^fi/B^lXg. 

185. Lituos.] I have translated 
lituos trumpets for want of a proper 
English word. The tuba is gene- 
rally thought to have been the same 
instrunient with our trumpet: but 
the lituus was diflferent from it, 
being almost straight, only turning 
a little in at the end: the cornu 
and the buccinum were bent almost 
round. 

184. Stabulo frcenos audire so- 
nantes.] In one of Dr. Mead's ma- 
nuscripts it is stabulis. 

Varro also says the colts should 
be accustomed to the sight and 
sound of bridles: " Eademque 
'* causa ibi fraenos suspendendum, 
" ut equuli consuescant et videre 
" eorum faciem, et e motu audire 
" crepitus." 

189. Invalidus.] In the King's 
manuscript it is invalidusque. 

El jam.'2 So I read with Hein- 
sius. Pierius found the same read- 
ing in some ancient copies. The 
common reading is eliam. 

190. At tribus exactis.] In the 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



271 



Carpere mox gyrum incipiat, gradibusque sonare rl*"{L'rund?'an''ci^p'ranie 

wiih regular steps. 



King's manuscript it is ac instead 
of at. 

Varro says some would break a 
horse at a year and half old : but 
he thinks it is better to stay till he 
is three years of age : " Cum jam 
" ad manus accedere consuerint, 
" interdum imponere iis puerum 
" bis, aut ter pronum in ventrera, 
'' postea jam sedentem, haec facere 
" cum sit trimus : turn enim maxi- 
" me crescere, ac lacertosum fieri. 
'* Sunt qui dicant post annum et 
'* sex menses equulum domari posse, 
" sed melius post trimiim, a quo 
" tempore farrago dari solet." Co- 
lumella makes a distinction between 
those which are bred for domestic 
labour, and those which are bred 
for races 5 he says the former should 
be tamed at two years, and the lat- 
ter not till he is past three : " Equus 
" bimus ad usum domesticum recte 
" domatur, certaminibus autem ex- 
" pleto triennio, sic tamen ut post 
" quartum demum annum labori 
*' committatur." 

Ubi quarla accesserit cestas.] " Al- 
" most all the ancient manuscripts 
*' have cetas, except only that most 
" ancient one, which we call the 
" Roman, in which we find ubi 
" qitarta acceperit cesias. But Ser- 
*' vius acknowledges cBtas, and ex- 

*' plains it quartus annus But 

•' for my part I neither dislike ac- 
" ceperit nor cestas, as we have the 
*' testimony of so ancient a manu- 
'' script, which I think may be de- 
" pended upon in whole words, 
** though it is often very corrupt in 
*' letters." Pierius. 

The King's, the Cambridge, the 
Bodleian manuscripts, and the old 
Nurenberg edition, have celas. Both 
the Arundelian, both Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts, several of the old edi- 
tions, Heinsius, Masvicius, Ruseus, 



and most of the later editors, read 
cestas. La Cerda reads (Etas; but 
he thinks cestas not amiss, which he 
says is a phrase used by Virgil, 
twice in the first ^neid, and once 
in the fifth. The first of these pas- 
sages is not to our purpose, for he 
does not use (Estas for a year, but 
only for a summer : 

Tertia dum Latio regnantem viderit 

aestas, 
Ternaque transierint Rutulis hyberna 

subactis. 

Here three summers are joined to 
three winters, in order to express 
three years. The second and third 
passages appear to me to come up 
to the point: though some critics 
contend that they mean only the 
summer season : 

Nam te jam septima portat 

Omnibus errantem terris et fluctibus 
aestas : 

And 

Septima post Trojae excidium jam vertitur 



Here (Estas cannot, without great 
violence, be construed to signify 
the summer season. It was winter 
when ^neas was at Carthage : 

Indulge hospicio, causasque innecte mo- 
randi : 

Dum pelago destsvit hyems, et aquosua 
Orion ; 

Quassatasque rates, et non tractabile cae- 
lum. 

And 

Nunchyemem inter seluxu, quam longa, 
fovere. 

And 

Quin etiam hylerno moliris sidere clas- 

sem, 
Et mediis properas aquilonibus ire per 

altum. 



272 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and let bim bend the alter- 
nate foldings of his legs; and 
let him seem to labour; (hen 
let him rival the winds in 
swiftness; and flying through 
the plains, as if uiibridled, let 
bim scarce print his footsteps 
on the top of the sand. As 
when the strong north wind 
rushes from the Hyperborean 
coasts, and dissipates 



Compositis, sinuetque alterna volumina crurum ; 
Sitque laboranti similis : turn cursibus auras 
Provocet, ac per aperta volans, ceu liber ha- 

benis, 
^quora, vix summa vestigia ponat arena. 195 
Qualis Hyperboreis Aquilo cum densus ab oris 



The passage from Carthage to Sicily 
is very short, and the games in 
honour of Anchises, were cele- 
brated on the tenth day after the 
arrival of ^neas in Sicily. Iris 
therefore, in the form of Beroe, 
could not mean it was the summer 
season, when these games were ce- 
lebrated; since it has been evi- 
dently proved that it was the winter 
season, or, at most, early in the 
spring. 

JEstas however, in the passage 
now under consideration, may mean 
only the summer, which is the very 
same, as if he had said annus. The 
time for covering mares, according 
to Varro, as I have quoted him, in 
the note on ver. 133, is from the 
vernal equinox to the summer sol- 
stice : and the mares, according to 
the same author, bring forth in 
eleven months and ten days. The 
time therefore of a colt's coming 
into the world is from the beginning 
of March to the beginning of June. 
The summer was reckoned to begin 
a little before the middle of May. 
Thus the fourth summer of a colt's 
life will be when he is completely 
three years, old. 

191. Gyrum.'2 See the note on 
ver. 115. 

193. Cursibus.'\ In the old Nu- 
renberg edition it is cruribus. 

194!. Provocet.'] In one of the 
Arundelian manuscripts it is ad- 
vocet. 

196. Hyperboreis.'] The Hyper- 
boreans are a people of whom not 



only the seat, but even the existence 
is called in question. The mention 
of them is very ancient, for we find 
Herodotus denying that there were 
any such people ; and not without 
reason, if by Hyperborean be meant, 
as he understands the word, a peo- 
ple who lived beyond the rising of 
the north wind. But others, as 
Strabo tells us in his first book, 
call those Hyperboreans, who live 
in the most northern parts of the 
world : Toy yu^ 'H^o^oroy fAvihhoc^ 

TTTi^Zo^iOVi illUl ^t)Vflt»T95 . ... El 5' 

d^oc, rov H^ooorov rovr iXt^'^v ahicta-^xi 
oTi rovg tTTi^Zo^iovg ToyTflyj VTCtXetZt As- 
yis-B^xi, 'TTCt^ eig o Be^zxg ov 7rm. Keci 
ya.^ it 01 TTOiYiTcc} uv^iKaTSp6y ol/Ta (peca-'tv, 
01 T l^yiyovf4.svoi TO vyiig otv ux-ova-xut , 
'^TTi^Zo^Uvg Bo^uoreiTovg (pxtri hiylT^xi. 
In his seventh book he treats them 
as fabulous : ^ix ^l riiv uyioixv rav 
roTTUV TovTai, oi tx ^VittxTx agjj, KXi tevg 
'XTTt^Zo^iiovg fiv^OTTOiovvTig. In his 
eleventh book he tells us that the 
ancient Grecians called all the 
northern nations Scythians and 
Celto-Scythians J but that the 
most ancient of all called those 
which lie to the north of the Black 
Sea, the Danube, and the Gulph of 
Venice, Hyperboreans, Sanromatce, 
and Arimaspians : "ATxyrxg ftli Jij 
Toy? TT^oa^eppovg, xoivag oi TCxXxioi T*r 
'EAA>iy&»» a-vyy^x^iig, Hxv^xg x,xi KsA- 
Tdc-xiiB-xg hcxXovi. Oi J' 'in T^on^ov 
^teXiiTig, revg fih vtI^ rev Ev^utov, KXt 
"irr^tv, Kxi 'A^piov KXTOiKovrrxg. Ttti^- 
Soggow? gAgyov, Kxi 'Lecv^ofcxrxg, kxi 
^A^ifAua-xwg. Pliny mentions the 



GEORG. LIB. III. 273 

Incubuit, Scythiaeque hyemes atque arida differt the scythian storms and dry 



Hyperboreans as fabulous, and 
places their supposed habitation at 
the very pole; " At per oram ad 
*' Tanaim usque Maeotai, a quibus 
" lacus nomen accepit : ultimique 
*' a tergo eorum Arimaspi, Mox 
*^ Riphasi montes, et assiduo nivis 
" casu pinnarum similitudine, Pte- 
*' rophoros appellata regio : pars 
" mundi damnata a natura rerum^ 
" et densji niersa caligine : neque in 
** alio quam rigoris operegelidisque 
*' Aquilonis conceptaculis. Pone eos 
** monies, ultraque Aquilonem, gens 
*' felix, si credimus, quos Hyperbo- 
** fQos appellavere, annoso degit 
*' aevojfabulosiscelebrata miraculis. 
'* Ibi creduntur esse cardines mun- 
*' di, extremique sideruiii ambitus, 
'^ semestri luce et una diesolis aver- 
*' si : non, ut imperiti dixere, ab 
" aequinoctio verno in autumnum. 
'* Semel in anno solstitio oriuntur 
*Mis soles; brumaque semel occi- 
*' dunt." We find here that the 
Arimaspians lived to the northward 
of the river Tanais, and the lake 
Maeotis. They inhabited therefore 
the country which is now called 
Muscovy, On the north part of 
this country were situated the Ri- 
phsean mountains, where the snow 
is continually falling, in the shape 
of feathers, by which perhaps were 
meant the mountains of Lapland, 
on the north side of which the Hy- 
perboreans were supposed to inha- 
bit. Virgil also mentions the Hy- 
perboreans and the Tanais together, 
in the fourth Georgick : 

Solus Hyperloreas glacies, Tanaimque 

nivalem 
Arvaque Riphaeis nunquam viduata pru- 

inis 
Luslrabat. 

We find in the foregoing passage of 
Pliny, that the Riphsean mountains 



were imagined to be the source of 
the north wind, and that the Hy- 
perboreans dwelt still farther north- 
ward : which opinion, however ab- 
surd, seems to have been the origin 
of their name. These Hyperbo- 
reans were said to live to a great 
age, in wonderful felicity, and to 
dwell in woods and groves, without 
diseases or discord. This is true of 
the Laplanders, as all travellers tes- 
tify. I shall content myself with 
quoting the authority of my learned 
friend Dr. Linnaeus of Upsal, who 
travelled thither in 1732, and was 
pleased to send me an excellent ac- 
count of the plants of that country, 
under the title of Flora Lapoiiica, 
printed at Amsterdam, in 1737, in 
8vo. Speaking of a dwarf sort of 
birch, which is greatly used in the 
Lapland oeconomy, he takes occa- 
sion to extol the felicity of the Lap- 
landers. He says they are free from 
cares, contentions, and quarrels, and 
are unacquainted with envy. They 
lead an innocent life, continued to 
a great age, free fiom myriads of 
diseases, with which we are afflicted. 
They dwell in woods, like the birds,, 
and neither reap nor sow: " O fe- 
" lix Lappo, qui in ultimo angulo 
" mundi sic bene lates contentus et 
" innocens. Tu nee times annonae 
" charitatem, nee Martis prtelia, 
*' quae ad tuas oras pervenire ne- 
" queunt, sed florentissimasEuropae 
" provincias et urbes, unico nio- 
" mento, saepe dejiciunt, delent. 
'^ Tu dormis hie sub tua pelle ab 
"■ omnibus curis, contentionibus, 
" rixis liber, ignorans quid sit in- 
" vidia. Tu nulla nosti, nisi to- 
*' nantis Jovis fulmina. Tu ducis 
" innocentissimos tuos annos ultra 
" centenarium numerum cum facili 
" senectute et sum ma sanitate. Te 
2 N 



QT4 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



clouds; then the tall corn, 
and waving fields shake with 
gentle blasts, and the tops of 
the woods rustle, and the long 
waves press towardstlie shore ; 
the wind flies swift along, 
sweeping the fields and seas 
at the same time in his flight. 
Such a horse will either sweat 
M the goals and largest rings 
of the Elean plain, 



Nubila : turn segetes altae, campique natantes 
Lenibus horrescunt flabris, summaeque sonorem 
Dant sylvae, longique urgent ad littora fluctus. 
lUe volat, simul arva fuga, simul aequora verrens. 
Hie vel ad Elei metas et maxima campi 202 



'• latent myriades morborum nobis 
'' Europaeis communes. Ta vivis 
*' in sylvis^ avisistar, nee sementem 
'^ facis, nee metis, tamen alit te 
'' Deus optimus optime. Tua or- 
" namenta sunt tremula arborum 
*' folia, graminosique luci. Tuus 
" potus aqua chrystallinse pelluci- 
*' ditatis, quse nee cerebrum insania 
'' adficit, nee strumas in Alpibus 
^' tuis producit. Cibus tuus est vel 
*' verno tempore piscis recens, vel 
'' sestivo serum lactis, vel autum- 
" nali tetrao, vel hyemali caro re- 
*' cens rangiferina absque sale et 
" pane, singula vice unico constans 
*' ferculo, edis dum securus e lecto 
'^ surgis, dumque eum petis, nee 
*' nosti venena nostra, quae latent 
" sub dulci melle. Te non obruit 
'' scorbutus, nee febris intermittens, 
" nee obesitasj nee podagra, fibroso 
" gaudes corpore et alacri, animo- 
*' que libero. O sancta innocentia, 
" estne hie tuus tiironus inter Fau- 
*' nos in summo septentrione, inque 
'* vilissima habita terra? numne 
'' sic praefers stragula haec betulina 
*'* mollibus serico tectis plumis ? 
'^ Sic etiam credidere veteres, nee 
'" male." The learned reader will 
compare this with the latter part of 
the twelfth chapter of the fourth 
book of Pliny's Natural History. 

197. Sci/thice.'] See the note on 
book i. ver. 240. 

Arida differ t nubila.] Thus Lu- 
cretius : 

— Venti vis verberat incita pontum 
Ingentesque ruit naves et n?ibila differ t. 

In the most northern countries the 
mists hang about the tops of the 



mountains, till they are dispelled 
by the north wind. Thus M. de 
Maupertuis observed under the 
arctic circle: '* Je ne scai si c'est 
" parce que la presence continuelle 
" du soleil sur I'horizon, fait elever 
'* des vapeurs qu' aucune nuit ne 
" fait descendre 5 mais pendant les 
" deux mois que nous avons passe 
"^ sur les montagnes, le ciel etoit 
" toujours charge, jusqu' a ce que 
"^ le vent de Nord vint dissiper les 
" brouillards." 

198. Turn.'] In the King's ma- 
nuscript it is cum; in one of the 
Arundelian, and in one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is dum, 

200. Lougi.] Pierius says it is 
longe in the Medicean and some 
other ancient manuscripts. 

201. Ille.'] In one of the Arun- 
delian manuscripts it is ipse. 

Arva.] It is arma in the King's 
manuscript; which must be an 
error of the transcriber. 

202. Hie vel ad.] " In the Lora- 
" bard manuscript, and in another 
" very ancient one, it is hie vel ad, 
" as we read in the common copies. 
^' In the Roman manuscript it is 
" hinc et ad Elei. In the oblong 
" manuscript also it is et, not veV 
Pierius. 

Elei campi.] Servius tells us, 
that Elis is a city of Arcadia, where 
the chariot-races were celebrated : 
but it is certain that the Olympic 
games were celebrated, not at Elis, 
but at Olympia. The Pisaeans, in 
whose country Olympia was situ- 
ated, had many contentions with 
the Eleans, about the government 
of the Olympic games: but at last. 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



^75- 



Sudabit spatia, et spumas aget ore cruentas : 
Belgica vel molli melius feret esseda collo. 



and will champ the bloody 
foam; or will belter bear the 
Bdgic chariots with his obe- 
dient neck. 



the Eleans prevailing, the whole 
country between Achaia, Messenia, 
and Arcadia, came to be called 
Elis. The reader will find a long 
account of this in the eighth book 
of Strabo's Geography. The plains 
of Elis therefore are not the plains 
about the city of Elis, as Servius 
erroneously imagines, but the plains 
about Olympia, in the region of 
Elis. 

203. Spatia.^ See the note on 
book i. ver. 513. 

204. Belgica vel molli melius feret 
esseda collo.^ This is generally un- 
derstood to mean, that the horse 
will be better for drawing common 
carriages : thus Dryden translates 
it: 

Or, bred to Belgian waggons, lead the 

way; 
UntirM at night, and cheerful all the 

day. 

But I think it is plain that the 
Poet speaks only of the generous 
horse, which is fit either for the 
races or war : 

Sin ad bella magis studium, turmasque 

feroces, 
Aut Alphaea rotis praelabi flumina Pisae, 
Et Jovis in luco currus agitare volantes. 

Here is no mention of domestic 
labour, but only of chariots and 
war. La Cerda observes that the 
esseda were used by private per- 
sons, in travelling, as well as in 
war; as appears from one of Ci- 
cero's Epistles : " Hie Vedius venit 
*' mihi obviam cum duobus essedis, 
" et rheda equis juncta, et lectica, 
" et familia magna." There is an- 
other passage of the same kind in 
the second Philippic oration : " Ve- 
'' hebatur in essedo tribunus plebis." 
But Virgil shews that he does not 



mean the common chariots, or esserfa, 
by adding the epithet Belgica, or 
perhaps bellica, as it is in one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts, for we 
do not find the chariots of war 
ascribed to the Gauls, but to the 
Britons. Cicero mentions them in 
some of his Epistles to Trebatius, 
who was in Britain with Caesar t 
'' Tu qui cseteris cavere didicisti, 
" in Britannia ne ab essedariis de- 
" cipiaris, caveto:" and " In Britan- 
" nia nihil esse audio, neque auri, 
" neque argenti. Id si ita est, 
'^ essedum aliquod suadeo rapias, et 
^' ad nos quam primum recurras:" 
and '' Sed tu in re militari mullo 
" es cautior, quam in advocationi- 
'^ bus : qui neque in oceano natare 
" volueris, studiosissimus homo na- 
'' tandi, neque spectare essedariosS' 
Cajsar does not once mention the 
essedum,, in his war with the Belgce: 
but we find them taken notice of, 
as soon as he approaches the Bri- 
tish shore: " At barbaric consilio 
" Romanorum cognito, prsemisso 
'' equitatu, et essedariis, quo ple- 
" rumque genere in praeliis uti con- 
" suerunt, reliquis copiis subsecuti, 
'' nostros navibus egredi prohibe- 
'^ bant." A little afterwards we 
find him describing the manner in 
which the Britons fought with these 
esseda, as if he had not met with 
them in his other wars. I must 
therefore confess, I do not under- 
stand why Virgil calls them Belgica; 
and would willingly read Bellica, 
according to Dr. Mead's manuscript, 
if I did not think it too presump- 
tuous to alter the text^ which has 
been generally received, upon the 
authority of a single manuscript. 

Molli.] " Dom'ito : utmollia colla 
" reflectunt." Servius. 

" 1 take molli for domilo, in op- 
2 n2 



S76 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Then at last when they aie 
tamed, let their ample bodies 
be distended with plenty of 
mixd provender; for it ihey 
are liisjh fed before they are 
tamed, ihey will be too fnlt 
of meitle, and refuse to bear 
the toii^h whips, and to obey 
the bitinc cm bs. But no in- 
dustry, that > ou can use, more 
confnms Iht-ir 5treng;tfi, ihaii 
to keep them from venery, 
and the stiniiS of blind lust: 
^\hetlleryoll delight more in 
bulis or in horses: and there- 
fore the bulls are removed to 
a distance, and into solitary 
pistiiies, behind the obstacle 
of a mountain, and beyond 
broad rivers; or are kept shut 
up within at full siall.-. Por 
the lemale by being seen 
consuiries their strensjth, and 
wastes them by degrees. 



Turn demum crassa magnum farragine corpus 
Crescere jam domitis sinito : nam que ante do- 

mandum 206 

Ingentes tollent animos, prensique negabunt 
Verbera lenta pati, et duris parere lupatis. 
Sed non ulla magis vires industria firmat, 
Quam Venerem et caeci stimulos avertere 

amoris : 210 

Sive bourn, sive est cui gratior usus equorum. 
Atque ideo taurus procul, atque in sola relegant 
Pascua, post montem oppositum, et trans flu- 

mina lata : 
Aut intus clausos satura ad praesepia servant. 
Carpit enim vires pauUatim, uritque videndo 



^' position to reluctanti,'* &c. Dr. 
Trapp. 

205. Tum^ It is tu in the King's 
manuscript. 

208. Lentai^ In the King's ma- 
nuscript it is dura. 

Lupatis.'] The curb is said to 
have been called lupatum, because 
it had unequal iron teeth, like the 
teeth of wolves. This strongly ex- 
presses the mettle of a headstrong 
horse, that he cannot be governed 
by such severe curbs, as we find 
used by the ancients. It is here 
put in opposition to mollibus capis- 
iris, mentioned before, by which 
perhaps is meant what we call a 
snaffle bit, as Dryden translates it : 

/ind then betimes in a soft snojle wrought. 

209. Sed non ulla magis, &c.] 
Having.] ust mentioned the strength- 
ening of horses with rich food, the 
Poet takes occasion to tell us that 
nothing preserves the strength 
either of horses or bulls so much 
as keeping them from venery. 
Hence he slides into a beautiful 
account of the violent effects of 



lust on all the animated part of 
the creation. He first begins with 
bulls, describes their fighting for 
thefemale, and the various passions, 
with which the vanquished bull is 
agitated. 

Firmat.'] Fieri us says it is servat 
in some ancient .manuscripts : but 
that it \i firmat in much the greater 
number. 

211. Equorum^ Columella ad- 
vises, that the good horses should 
be kept separate from the mares, 
except at the tinie designed for 
covering: *' Equos autem pretiosos 
" reliquo tempore anni removere 
" oportet a foeminis, ne aut cum 
'^ volent, ineant, aut si id facere 
" prohibeantur, cupidine sollicitati 
" noxam contrahant. Itaque vel 
'' in longinqua pascua marem pla- 
'* cet ablegari, vel ;id praesepia 
" contineri." These last words are 
almost the same which Virgil has 
used, with relation to bulls : 

Atque ideo tauros procul, atque in sola 

relegant 
Pascua. ■ 
Aut intus clausos satura ad praesepia 

servant. 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



^77 



Foemina: nee nemorum patitur meminisse, 
nee herbae. 216 

Dulcibus ilia quidem illecebris, et saepe superbos 
Cornibus inter se subigit deeernere amantes. 
Pascitur in magna sylva formosa juvenca : 
Illi alternantes multa vi praelia miscent 220 
Vulneribus crebris : lavit ater corpora sanguis, 
Versaque in obnixos urgentur cornua vasto 
Cum gemitu, reboant sylvaeque et magnus 

Olympus. 
Nee mos bellantes una stabulare : sed alter 
Victus abit, longeque ignotis exulat oris, 225 
Multa gemens ignominiam, plagasque superbi 
Vietoris; turn quos amisit inultus amores; 
Et stabula aspectans regnis excessit avitis. 
Ergo omni cura vires exercet, et inter 
Dura jacet pernix instrato saxa cubili, 230 



and makes tliem forect the 
groves and pastures. She also 
with sweet allurements often 
impels the proud lovers to 
ccmtend with their horns. 
The beanteons heifer feeds in 
the spacious wood, whilst they 
mutually enfjage with great 
force ill battle with frequent 
wounds; the black gore dis- 
tains their bodies; their horns 
are violently urged against 
each other, with vast roar- 
ing, and the woods and great 
Olympus rebellow. Nor do 
the warriors use to dwell to- 
gether; but the vanquished 
retires, and becomes an exile 
in unknown distant coasts, 
grievously lamenting his dis- 
grace, and the wounds of the 
proud victor, and his loves 
which he has lost unrevenged, 
and casting his eve back at 
the stalls, deparls from his he- 
reditary realms. Therefore 
with all diligence he exer- 
cises his strength, and obsti- 
nately makes his bed ou the 
hard stones. 



21 6. Meminisse nee herbce.'] *' In 
*' the oblong manuscript it is neque, 
" which seems softer." Pierius. 

219- Sylva.'] Servius says that 
some would read Sila, a mountain 
of Lucaniaj which alteration he 
justly thinks unnecessary. 

220. Illi oUernautes multa vi prce- 
lia miscent.'] Thus in the twelfth 
Mneid : 

Illi inter sese multa vi vuliiera miscent, 
Cornuaque obnixi infigunt, et sanguine 

largo 
Colla armosque lavant : gemitu nemus 

omne remugit. 

It is tollunt instead of miscent in 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 

226. Multa:] It is generally 
thou2:ht to be put adverbially : but 
La Cerda is of another opinion, 
who thus paraphrases this passage : 
" Gemit doletque multa, videlicet 
" ignominiam amissae glorise, ac- 
" ceptas plagas, amores perditos," 



230. Pernix.] So I read with 
Servius, who explains pernix perse- 
verans, and derives it a perniiendo, 
Pierius says it is pernix in all the 
manuscripts which he had seen, 
and speaks of pernox as an inno- 
vation. The King's, and one of 
the Arundelian manuscripts, most 
of the old editions, Paul Stephens, 
La Cerda, Heinsias, and Masvicius, 
have pernix. The Cambridge, the 
Bodleian, the other Arundelian, 
and both Dr. Mead's manuscripts 
have pernox. Ruaeus contends, that 
it ought to be pernox, and affirms 
that pernix has no wliere the sig- 
nification which Servius assigns to 
it, but always means swift, as per- 
nix Saliirnus, and pedibus celerem et 
pernicibus alis. He says it cannot 
be supposed that Virgil would call 
his wearied bull swift, and there- 
fore he reads pernox with the two 
Scaligers. Grimoaldus also reads 



278 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and feeds on rough leaves and 
sharp rushes; and tries him- 
self", and practises his horns 
against the trunk of a tree; 
and pushes against the wind, 
and spurning the sand pre- 
pares to fight. Afterwards, 
when his strength is collectefi, 
and his force regained, he 
inarches on, and rushes iiead- 
long on his unsuspecting ene- 
my. 



Frondibus hirsutis, et carice pastus acuta : 
Et tentat sese, atque irasci in cornua discit 
Arboris obnixus trunco : ventosque lacessit 
Ictibus, et sparsa ad pugnam proludit arena. 
Post, ubi coUectum robur, viresque receptae, 235 
Signa movet, prascepsque oblitum fertur in 
hostem. 



pernox. La Cerda says all the old 
copies read pernix, "which he ex- 
plains laboriosus, obstinatus, perti- 
nax, and derives from the old verb 
pernitor, with Servius. If pernox 
be admitted, our translation must 
be, "^ and makes his bed all night 
*' on the hard stones." 

231. Carice acuta.'] This plant 
has so little said of it by the Roman 
writers, that it is hard to ascertain 
what species we are to understand 
by the name carex. It is here called 
sharp, which, if it be meant of the 
end of the stalk, is no more than 
what Ovid has said of the juncus, 
or common rush ; "^ acuta cuspide 
'' junci :" it is mentioned but once 
more by Virgil; 

■ Tu post carecta latebas : 

From which passage we can gather 
no more, than that these plants 
grew close enough together for a 
person to conceal himself behind 
them. Catullus mentions the carex 
along with t]\&jiincus^ as being used 
to thatch a poor cottage : 

Hunc ego juvenes locum, villuLtraque 

palustrem, 
Tectam vimine junceo, caricisquc mani- 

pHs, 
Quercus arida, rustica conformata securi 
Nutrivi. 

Columella mentions the carex to- 
gether with fern, and tells what 
season is best to destroy them : 
'' Filix quoque, aut carex ubicun- 
'^ que nascitur, Augnsto mense 



*' recte extirpatur, melius tamen 
" circa Idiis Julias ante caniculee 
*" exortum." Since therefore it is 
difficult to determine what the carex 
is, from what the ancients have 
said of it; we must depend upon 
the authority of Anguillara, who 
assures us that about Padua and 
Vincenza they call a sort of rush, 
careze, which seems to be the old 
word carex modernized. Caspar 
Bauhinus says it is that sort of 
rush which he has called Juncus 
acuius panicula sparsa. It is there- 
fore our common hard rush, which 
grows in pastures, and by way 
sides, in a moist soil. It is more 
solid, hard, and prickly at the point, 
than our common soft rush, which 
seems to be what the ancients called 
juncus. 

232. Irasci in cornua, &c.] Thus 
also in the twelfth ^Eneid : 

Mugitus veluti cum prima in praelia 

taurus 
Terrificos ciet, atque irasci in cornua 

tentat, 
Arboris obnixus trunco, ventosque lacessit 
Ictibus, et spa?'sa ad pugnam proludit 

arena. 

234. Et.] Pierius says it is aut 
in the Roman manuscript, but he 
does not approve of it. 

235. Receptw.] Fulvius Ursinus 
says it is refectcE in the old Colotian 
manuscript. Heinsius acknow- 
ledges the same reading, in which 
he is followed by Masvicius. 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



279 



Fluctus uti medio coepit cum albescere ponto 



Just as when a wave begins to 

whiten far off in the middle 

~f . I , . - 1 • ^ . , of the sea, and swells up from 

JLongius, ex altoque smum trahit^ utque volutus the deep: and rolling to 



237- Fluctus uti medio.l So I find 
it in both the Arundelian, and in 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 
Pierius found the same reading in 
the Roman, the Medicean, the 
Looibard, and other very ancient 
manuscripts. In tl)e oblong ma- 
nuscript he found Fluctus uti in 
medio, which he seems to approve: 
it is the same in the King's manu- 
script. Dr. Mead's other manu- 
script has Jluctus aut in medio, where 
aut no doubt is an error of the 
transcriber for ut. ]n the Cam- 
bridge and Bodleian manuscripts it 
is Fluctus utin medio, which reading 
is received in almost all the printed 
editions. We have almost the same 
line in the seventh ^neid : 

Fluctus uti primo cospit cum albescere 
vento. 

This simile seems to be taken 
from the fourth Iliad : 

"Xlj o' or iv aiyiccXZ ToXutj^UKV/xee, SaXaffffm 
O^vvT t^affffuTi^ov ^i<pv^ov iivoxtvna'avro;, 
JlovTO) fiiv TO, -zf^ara xo^vffffiTcci, avra^ 

Ki^tTik) ptjyvvfjciyov fAiydXa, ^pi/xn, afA(p) ^i 

T ax^as 
Kv^TOv iov xo^vipaureu, ei^rez'TVit V aXoi 

"Xlj ror' l^affffin^ai Axvauv xivvvro (pi- 

Xctyyis 
'SaXifiias ziroXsfiov^i. 

As when the winds, ascending by de- 
grees, 
First move the whitening surface of the 

seas. 
The billows float in order to the shore. 
The wave behind rolls on the wave 

before. 
Till, with the growing storm, the deeps 

arise. 
Foam o'er the rocks, and thunder to the 

skies. 
So to the fight the thick battalions 

throng, 
Shields urg'd on shields, and men drove 

men along. 

Mr. Pope. 



238. Longius, ex altoque sinum 
tratiit.'] The comma is generally 
placed at the end of the preceding 
verse, which makes the interpreta- 
tion of these words very difficult. 
But I think all the difficulty is re- 
moved by placing the comma after 
longius. Virgil is here comparing 
the bull's first preparing himself to 
renew the fight, to a wave begin- 
ning to whiten and swell, at a great 
distance from the shore, in the 
middle of the sea. Then as the 
wave rolls towards the land, with 
a dreadful roaring among the rocks, 
and falls upon the shore like a huge 
mountain ; so the bull comes fu- 
riously roaring against his unsus- 
pecting enemy, and impetuously 
rushes upon him. 

Siuum traliit is, I believe, a sin- 
gular expression ; and I do not find 
it explained by the commentators. 
Sinus usually signifies some sort of 
cavity, as the bosom of any person, 
or a bay : it is used also to signify 
a waving line, like the motion of a 
snake. The Poet seems to conceive 
a wave to be a hollow body, and 
therefore calls the inner part of it 
its sinus or bosom. Thus in the 
eleventh ^neid, he speaks of a 
wave pouring its bosom over the 
farthest part of the shore: 

Quaiis ubi alterno procurrens gurgite 

pontus. 
Nunc ruit ad terras, scopulosque super- 

jacit undam 
Spumeus, extremamque sinu perfundit 

arenam. 

In the seventh JEneid, where we 
have a simile, not much unlike 
that now under consideration, we 
have altius undas erigit, which I 
take to mean the same with ex alto 
sinum trahit. 



S80 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



the land, makes a dreadful 
roaring among the rocks, and 
falls liUe a huge mountain : 
tlie bottom of the water boils 
viih whirlpools, and tosses 
tliu black sand on nigh. Ewry 
kind aK<o of livinsr creatures, 
both men and wild beasts, and 
the inhabitant* of the seas, 
cattle, and painted birds, rush 
into fury and flames: lust is 
the same in all. At no other 
time does the lioness forget- 
ting her whelps wander over 
the plains with greater fierce- 
ness: nor do the shapeless 
bears make such havoc in the 
woods; then is the boar fierce, 
iand the tyger most dangerous. 
Then, alas! it is ill wandering 
in the desert fields of Lybia. 
Do you not see how the 
horse trembles all over, if he 
does but snuff the well-known 
gales^ 



Ad terras, immane sonat per saxa, neque ipso 
Monte minor procumbit : at ima exaestuat unda 
Vorticibus, nigramque alte subjectat arenam. 241 
Omne adeo genus in terris bominumque fera- 

rumque, 
Et genus asquoreum, pecudes, pictagque volu- 

cres. 
In furias ignemque ruunt : amor omnibus idem. 
Tempore non alio catulorum oblita leaena 245 
Saevior erravit cam pis : nee funera vulgo 
Tarn multa informes ursi stragemque dedere 
Per sylvas: tum saevus aper, tum pessima tigris. 
Heu ! male tum Lybiae solis erratur in agris. 
Nonne vides, ut tota tremor pertentet equorum 
Corpora, si tantum notas odor attulit auras ? 251 



Fluctus uti primo coepit cum albescere 

vento : 
Paulatim sese tollit mare, et altius nndas 
Erigit, inde imo consurgit ad aethera 

fundo. 

239. Neque.'] Pierius says it is 
neque in the Lombard manuscript, 
which he approves. Heinsius also 
has neque. In most editions it is 
nee. 

240. At^ In the King's manu- 
script it is «c. 

241. Vorticibus.'] Heinsius and 
Masvicins read verticihus, which 
Pierius also observed in the Roman 
and Medicean manuscripts. 

Subjectat] Pierius found sub- 
veclat ill the Roman manuscript, 
which he seems to approve. 

242. Omue adeo genus, &c.] Hav- 
ing spoken of the fury which lust 
causes in bulls, he takes occasion 
to mention the violent effects of it 
in other animals, and also in man- 
kind. 

In this whole paragraph, the Poet 
seems to have had before him the 
eighteenth chapter of Aristotle's 



sixth book of the History of Ani- 
mals. 

248. Sylvas.'] It is sylvain in one 
of the Arundelian manuscripts, and 
in some printed editions. 

249. Heu ! male tum Lyb'icp, &c.] 
Aristotle, speaking of bears, wolves, 
and lions, says they are dangerous 
to those that come near them, not 
having frequent fights between 
themselves, because they are not 
gregarious ; Tav xvrov ^s t^o-tfcv xxi 
iTTt rm uy^iav. x,x) yct^ oc^KTot, kxi 
XvKoi, Koct MovTig ^xXiTToi ro7g "yrXriO-iot- 
C^oviri yivovrai tti^I tov x-oci^cv tovtov. 
TT^og aXXiiXovg T ijTTov fid^ovrxi, ^icc to 
fAVi ayiXoclov iivxi /^rM* Toiv toiovtuv Z^aui. 

Lybia is the Greek name for 
Africa, according to Pliny : " Afri- 
'^ cam Graeci Lybiam appellavere." 
This country abounds with the 
fiercest wild beasts. 

249. Erratur.] Pierius says it 
is versatur in a very ancient manu- 
script, and erravit in the Medicean. 

Agris.] It is arvis in the Cam- 
bridge, the Arundelian, and one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



^1 



Ac neque eos jam fraena, viriim neque verbera 



saeva. 



Non scopuli, rupesque cavae, aut objecta retar- 

dant 
Flumina, correptosque unda torquentia montes. 
^ Ipse ruit, dentesque Sabellicus exacuit sus, ^55 
Et pede prosubigit terram, fricat arbore costas 



And now neither bridles, nor 
the severe scourges of the 
riders, not rocks and caverns, 
and rivers interposed, that 
whirl mountains along with 
their torrents, can restrain 
them. Even the Sabellian 
boar rushes, and whets his 
tusks, and tears the ground 
with his feet, and rubs his 
sides backwards and forwards 
against a tree. 



252. Ac] It is at in the old 
Nnrenberg edition. 

Frcena, virum neque verbera sceva.] 
The comma is usually placed after 
virum J I have ventured to place it 
SLfterfrcena. 

253. Non.'\ It is nee in the 
King's manuscript. 

254. Correptosque unda torquentia 
montes.'] The common reading is 
correptos without que: but Pierius 
found correptosque in the Medicean, 
the Roman, the Lombard, and other 
ancient manuscripts. The same 
reading is in the King's, the Cam- 
bridge, the Bodleian, and both the 
Arundelian manuscripts. Heinsius, 
Schrevelius, Masvicius, and some 
others also admit que. 

255. Ipse ruit, &c.] Aristotle 
speaking of the w'\\d boars says, 
that at this time they rage horribly, 
and fight one with another, making 
their skins very hard by rubbing 
against trees, and by often rolling 
themselves in the mud, and letting 
it dry, make their backs almost im- 
penetrable ; and fight so furiously 
that both of them are often killed : 
Kcct 01 ye; et ay^ioi ^xXiTrarocTOi, KotiTTi^ 
ua-jina-TocTtt Trip] rov xxtpov rovTov ovng, 
ctoi Tdv 6^uxv, Kxt 5rg05 aXXuXovg fiiv 
iToioviTi? f*ci^ocg ^avf^cCTr^? B'af^eixi^ovTig 

iXVTOVg, xoii TTOlOVVTi? TO ^'iPfAOi COq "TTX- 
^VTUTOV ZK TTOi^OCa-KiV^?, TT^Oq tU ^vJ^^Ot 

oiar^iZovTiq xcti rS TrviXS fcohvvovTi? TFoh.- 
XoiKiq, xat |»jgfls/ve»Te5 zxvTovg. f4,ct^ovTcct 
oi Tt-f^a-i u>\.)^^Xovg l|gA«t»vavTg5 Ix. rav crvo^ 
<PopZiim ovra <r(pcdeaq, wtrn TroXXuKig 



ec^^oTi^oi »To^v>i(r»ovcrtv. La Cerda 
contends that the Poet is here 
speaking of the wild boar, contrary 
to the opinion of Servius and the 
other commentators. But I believe 
they are in the right j for Virgil 
had spoken before of the wild boarj 
*' turn scBVUS aper :" and here he 
says even the Sabellian boar rages ; 
*' ipse Sabellicus sus :" that is, not 
only the wild boar, but even the 
tame one rages at this time; and, 
to make his description the stronger, 
he ascribes to the tame boar, what 
Aristotle has said of the wild one. 

256. Et pede prosubigit^ In the 
old Paris edition of 1494, it is Et 
pedibus subigit. 

Fricat arbore costas at que kinc at- 
que illinc, humerosque ad vulnera 
durat.] So I read with the Bod- 
leian, one of the Arundelian, and 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 
Pierius found the same reading in 
the Roman, the Medicean, and 
other ancient manuscripts. It is 
the same in the old Nurenberg edi- 
tion, in an old edition by Jacobus 
Rubeus, printed at Venice in 1475, 
in the old Paris edition of 1494, 
and some other old editions. The 
common reading is i\\\xs, fricat ar- 
bore costas, atque hinc atque illinc 
humeros ad vulnera durat. I take 
atque hinc atque illinc to belong to 
fricat arbore costas ; for the boar 
rubs his sides backwards and for- 
wards against a tree ; but the hu'* 
meros ad vulnera durat, the harden- 



282 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and hardens his sbouUlers 
against wounds. What does 
the young man, in whose 
bones cruel love excites the 
niiehty fire? In the dead of 
niglit he swims the seas tossed 
with bursting storms; over 
whom the vast gate of heaven 
thunders; and whom the seas 
dashed on the rocks 



Atque liinc atque illinc, humerosque ad vulnera 

durat. 
Quid juvenis, magnum cui versat in ossibus 

ignem 
Durus amor? nempe abruptis turbata procellis 
Nocte natat caeca serus freta : quem super ingens 
Porta tonat caeli, et scopulis illisa reclamant 261 



ing his shoulders against wounds, 
relates to the rolling in mud, and 
baking it upon his skin, so as to 
make a sort of coat of armour, as 
we readjust now, in the quotation 
from Aristotle. 

258. Quid juvenis, &c.] Here 
the Poet no doubt alludes to the 
well known story of Leander and 
Hero. But with great judgment 
he avoids mentioning the particular 
story, thereby representing the 
whole species, as ready to encoun- 
ter the greatest dangers, when 
prompted by lust. Dryden was not 
aware of this, who, in his transla- 
tion, has put all the verbs in the 
preterperfect tense, and even men- 
tions Sestos, the habitation of 
Hero : 

What did the youth, when love's un- 
erring dart 

Transfixed his liver; and inflani'd his 
heart ? 

Alone, by night, his wat'ry way he 
took: 

About him, and above, the billows 
Irolce : 

The sluices of the sky were open spread j 

And rolling thunder rattled o'er his 
head. 

The raging tempest calVd him back in 
vain ; 

And every boding omen of the main. 

Nor could his kindred; nor the kindly 
force 

Of weeping parents, change his fatal 
course. 

No, not the dying maid, who must de- 
plore 

His floating carcase on the Sestian 
shore. 



Cui.'] It is- cum in the King's 
manuscript. 

261. Porta tonat cceli, &c.] The 
commentators are greatly divided 
about the meaning of the gate of 
heaven. Servius interprets it the 
air full of clouds, through which 
the passage lies to heaven : '' Aer 
'' nubibus plenus, per quem iter in 
^' cselura est." Grimoaldus para- 
phrases it according to this inter- 
pretation : '' Cum interim aer (per 
" quem iter est factum) nubibus 
" erat obsitus," La Cerda's note 
on this passage deserves to be tran- 
scribed entire, and I shall here pre- 
sent the reader with a translation of 
it : '' By the gate of heaven Turne- 
'' bus understands the hemisphere : 
•' Manutius the air full of clouds, 
" through which the passage lies 
" to heaven. Others interpret it 
" the east and west, of which no- 
" tion I speak in another place : 
'*^ others a cloud, which is not 
" much amiss; for as that noise is 
" made in a cloud, which bursts 
*' out together with the thunder^ 
" it seems to have the appearance 
'' of a gate opening to let out the 
" fire. You may take it for the 
" north, where is the hinge of 
" heaven, which the Greeks call 
'' TcoXov, and by the help of imagin- 
" ation, may be called a gate and 
" a threshold. Ovid will invite 
" you to this interpretation, who 
'^ makes Leander, in his Epistle, 
'' address himself to Boreas, which 



GEORG. LIB. III. 283 

^quora; nee miseri possunt revocare parentes, [faSl S i"^^^^^ 



*' blows from that quarter of the 
" heavens, as withstanding his at- 
'' tempt. But I have ventured to 
" differ from all others, in explain- 
" ing this passage of Virgil. Vir- 
*' gil, Ennius, Homer, have spoken 
*' of the gate of heaven according 
" to the following notion : the an- 
*' cients feigned Jupiter to be in a 
*' certain temple of heaven, espe- 
*' cialiy when he thundered and 
" lightened. Thus Varvo, in Satyr a 
*' Bimarco: 

" — — Tunc repente celitum 

" AUum tonitribus templum tonescit: 

" for so we must read, and not cce- 
" liim: and Lucretius, lib. i. 

" Cceli tonitrulia templa, 
'^ And lib. vi. 

" Fumida cum cceli sc'mtillant omnia tern' 
'' pla, 

*' Terence, in Eunucho, 

*< Qui templa cceli summa sotiitu 

" concutit. 

^' Hence I gather, that gates may 
*' be imagined in heaven, temples 
" being feigned already : so that 
" we may understand that those 
" gates of the temples opened to 
*' let out the thunderbolts. Hence 
'' Silius, lib. 1. 



Tonat alti regia cceli. 



Therefore they understand by 
templum call; sometimes a parti- 
cular part of the heavens, as it 
were the palace of Jupiterj some- 
times the whole heaven, which 
I rather believe ; certainly it is 
natural, that they should ascribe 
doors to this temple. Not very 
different from this is the fiction 
of Homer, in the eighth Iliad : 



" TJJs iTirir^uTrui f/iyas ov^xvosy ouXvfA- 

** vros rtf 
*' 'UfAiv avciKkTvoct -ruKivov vitros, vV \<ri- 

'* hlvai. 

" Heav'n gates spontaneous open to the 

" pow'rs, 
" Heav'n's golden gates, kept by the 

" winged hours, 
" Commission'd in alternate watch they 

" stand, 
" The sun*s bright portals, and the skies 

" command; 
" Close, or unfold, th' eternal gates of 

" day, 
" Bar heav'n with clouds, or roll those 

** clouds away. 

Mr. Pope. 

" As Virgil uses porta cceli, so Ca- 
*' tullus ccElijanua, and i)efore them 
" both Ennius; Mi soli cceli maxi- 
" ma porta patet : and before all 
'^ Homer ; uvTof^arcci ^l 7rv>.e6i ^vkov 
" ov^uvov." Ruseus highly approves 
of this interpretation. But Catrou 
thinks it means the east and west, 
and will have Virgil here be sup- 
posed to express, that the storm 
came from the west, because Sestos 
is to the westward of Abydos : 
*' Ces expressions, porta tonat cceli, 
" meritent attention. Par la porta 
'*^ du Ciel il faut entendre, ou celle 
" par ou le soleil entre sur I'horison, 
" et c'est rOrient : ou celle par 
^^ oil il en sort, et c'est VOccident. 
^' Ici Virgile semble vouloir dire, 
'^ que I'orage venoit d'Occident, 
'' puisque Sestos est occidental, en 
" egard a Abydos." This is being 
very minute indeed : but I believe 
Virgil would not have used the 
gate of heaven, to express the west, 
when it might as well have sig- 
nified the east, without adding some 
epithet, to make his meaning evi- 
dent. Besides, it is the north wind 
that would have withstood Lean- 
der's intent; and Ovid, as La 
2o 2 



^4 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



nor the maid whose death 
must be the conseqnence of 
his nnhappy end. what do 
the spotted ounces of Bacchus, 
and the fierce kind of wolves, 
and dogs? What do the ti- 
morous stags, what fierce war 
do they wage? 



Nec moritura super crudeli funere virgo. 

Quid Lynces Bacchi variae, et genus acre lupo- 

rum, 
Atque canum ? quid, quae imbelles dant praelia 

cervi ? ^65 



Cerda rightly observes, supposed 
the north wind to oppose his 
passage : 

At tu de rapidis immansuetissime ventis, 
Quid mecum certa praelia mente ge- 
ris? 
In me, si nescis, Borea, non aequora, 
saevis. 
Quid faceres, esset ni tibi notus amor ? 
Tarn gelidus cum sis, non te tamen, im- 
probe, quondam 
Ignibus Actaeis incaluisse negas. 
Gaudia rapturo si quis tibi claudere vellet 

Aerios aditus : quo paterere modo ? 
Parce precor; facilemque move modera- 
tius auram. 
Imperet Hippotades sic libi triste ni- 
hil. 

To conclude ; as Virgil did not de- 
sign to give a minute account of 
Leander's particular action, it can- 
not \>Q imagined that he would 
have taken pains to let his readers 
know, that the west wind was op- 
posite to those who would sail from 
Abydos ; if that had been true. 
But, in reality, it is the north wind, 
or Boreas, which was always reck- 
oned to blow from Thrace j and 
Sestos is known to have been on 
the Thracian shore. 

261. Scopulis illisa reclamattt 
{Equora.] Catrou interprets this of 
the waves pushing back Leander 
from the coast of Sestos ; " Les 
*' flots repoussoient Leandre de la 
" c6te de Sestos ; vers Abydos sa 
*' patrie." But surely the Poet's 
meaning is, that the waves dashing 
violently on the rocks in a storm 
ought not to prevent any one from 
venturing out to sea. 

263. VirgoJ] This word is not 



used by the Poets in so strict a 
sense, as we use the word virgin. 
Thus Pasiphae is called virgo, in 
the sixth Eclogue, in two places : 

Ah, virgo infelix, quae te dementia 
cepit : 

And 

Ah, virgo infelix, tu nunc in montibus 
erras. 

264. Lynces Bacchi varicc.'] The 
ounce, the tiger, and the leopard, 
are said to be the animals, by which 
the chariot of Bacchus was drawn. 
Thus Ovid : 

Ipse racemiferis frontem circumdatus 

uvis. 
Pampineis agitat velatam frondibus 

havStam. 
Quern circa tigris, simulacraque inania 

Pictarumque jacent fera corpora panthe- 
rarum. 

The difference between these ani- 
mals not being commonly well 
known, I shall here set down the 
marks by which they are distin- 
guished. The tiger is as large or 
larger than a lion, and marked 
with long streaks. The leopard is 
smaller than the tiger, and marked 
with round spots. The ounce or 
lynx is of a reddish colour, like a 
fox, marked with black spots : the 
hairs are gray at the bottom, red 
in the middle, and whitish at the 
top ; those which compose the 
black spots are only of two colours, 
having no white at the top. The 
eyes are very bright and fiery 5 and 
the ears are tipped with thick 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



285 



Scilicet ante omnes furor est insignis equarum : 
Et mentem Venus ipsa dedit, quo tempore 

Glauci 
Potniades raalis membra absumpsere quadrigae. 
Illas ducit amor trans Gargara, transque so- 

nantem 269 

Ascaniura: superant montes, et flumina tranant. 



But the rage o( mares far ex- 
ceeds all the rest ; and Venus : 
herself inspired them, when 
the Potiiiau mares tore Glau- 
cus ia pieces with their jaws. 
Lust leads them beyoud Gar- 
garus, and beyond roaring 
Ascanins: they climb over the 
mountains, and swim through 
the rivers; 



shining hairs, like black velvet. 
It is an animal of exceeding fierce- 
ness. 

265. Quid, quos imbelles dant 
preslia cervi ?] In the Cambridge, 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, 
and several of the old printed edi- 
tions, it is quidque. 

Our great Harvey, who had par- 
ticularly studied these animals, and 
had perhaps better opportunities of 
being acquainted with their nature 
than any man, observes, in his trea- 
tise of the Generation of Animals, 
that stags are very furious about 
rutting time, and assault men and 
dogs, though at other times they 
are very timorous, and run away 
at the barking of the smallest dog: 
'' Eodem tempore, furore libidinis 
"saeviunt; canes, hominesque ad- 
" oriuntur : alias vero timidi valde, 
" et imbelles sunt ; ac vel a mi- 
'' nimae caniculae latratu, sese con- 
" tinuo in fugaro proripiunt." The 
same author observes, that after 
the stag has impregnated all his 
females, he grows exceedingly ti- 
morous: " Mas, postquam foemellas 
" suas implevit, defervescit ; si- 
" mulque timid ior factus, ac maci- 
" lentior, gregem deserit j vagatur 
*' solus ; avideque pascitur, ut at- 
" tritas vires resarciatj nee foemi- 
*' nam aliquam postea toto anno 
" aggreditur." 

266. Scilicet ante omnes.] Having 
digressed, to give an account of the 
mischievous effects of lust on the 



whole animal creation j lie now re- 
turns to speak of horses, which 
seem all this while to have been 
forgotten. Here he describes the 
extraordinary venereal fury of 
mares j and then corrects himself, 
for having spent so much time in 
excursions about this passion. 

Furor est insignis equarum.'] Aris- 
totle says, that mares are the most 
libidinous of all female animals : 
that this fury of theirs is called 
iTT'To^ecmy, whence that word is ap- 
plied, by way of reproach, to las- 
civious women : Tm 31 %Miav o^ftn- 

TlKCOq 'i^OVT-t "^PCg TOV CTW^VXTfAGV, fAU- 

Xicrrx f^lv tTFTTog , '{■^iircc jiovg. ul (aIv cut 
Yttttoi ut B-»Xitxi l-TfTrofAotvcva-iv. oS^gV KU,t 
Itc) riiv fi>^x(r(pvifAluv to ovofiec ecvrav Itti- 
^'i^ova-tVy ei'^o fzovov rm ^aav t^v Itti rav 

267. Glauci Potniades malis mem- 
bra absumpsere quadrigcsr] Potnia 
was a town of Boeotia, near Thebes. 
Of this town was Glaucus the son 
of Sisyphus, who restrained the 
four mares, which drew his cha- 
riot, from the company of horses, 
in order to make them more swift 
for the race. Venus is said to have 
been so highly offended at this 
violation of her rites, that she raised 
such a fury in the mares, that they 
tore their master limb from limb. 

269. Gargara.] See the note on 
hook i. ver. 102. 

270. Ascanium.'] This is the 
name of a river of Bithynia. But 
Gargarus and Ascanius seem to be 



286 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



i.;anra.ldrifimV.hdr"rr' Continuoque avidis ubi subdita flamma medullis, 

row, especially in the spring, 

Srn"ir tri?lonel'b^; au ^^^^ "^^S^^, quia vcrc calor redit ossibus, iUae 

turning their faces to the west r\^^ ^, ' rr ^ . . -t 

wind.theystaaci on the rocks, Urc omnes vcrsae ID ZephyruDi stant rupibus 



altis, 



273 



put here for any mountain and 
river. 

271. Continuo.'\ See the note on 
ver. 75. 

272. Qiuia vere calor redit.'] Pi- 
erius says it is quia vere redit calor, 
in the Roman manuscript. 

273. Ore omnes versce in Zephy- 
mm.'] The impregnation of mares 
by the wind is mentioned by a 
great variety of authors. Homer 
speaks of the horses of Achilles, as 
being begotten by the west wind. 
See the quotation from Homer, in 
the note on magni currus j^chillis, 
ver. 91. 

Aristotle says, that at the time 
the mares have this fury upon 
them, they are said to be impreg- 
nated by the wind : for which rea- 
son, in the island of Crete, they 
never separate the mares from the 
stallions. When they are thus af- 
fected, they leave the rest, and run, 
not towards the east or west, but 
towards the north or south, and 
suffer no one to come near them, 
till either they are quite tired down, 
or come to the sea. At this time 
they emit something, which is called 
Hippomanes, and is gathered to be 
used as a charm : AsyovTas* ^i kcc) 

Iv Kg^yTji ovK. l^ui^ovs-i ret o^iix he rav 
S'ljAsi&'v, oTotv dl rovT6 •xd^atri, B'^ovfiv 
Ik im uXXcov '/ttttuv. za-ri bl to Tra^oq , 
cTTi^ iTTt vm >AyiTui TO KflSTT^/^Siv. ^iov<rt 
^g oyTg TTpog sa, et/TS Trpog ova-uoig, aXXci 

%pc% U^KTOV, JJ VOTOV. OTUV Oi if^TTStryi TO 

^uB'eg, cvdivec iZcri wA})(r<a^g<v, sag ccv k 

UTtilTTOiTl OlCi TOV TfOVO^, *1 TTgCg ^CCXXtTCrXV 

'i^^UTi, TOTS ^' ix.ZdX'hovT-i ri. yotXoviri 

Jg Ktti tOVTOy U(r%'c^ iTTi TOV TlKTOf>ihoV, 



i7r7ro//,ctvig. irri oi oiov *) kxtt^ix. Keti 
^nrovtri rovro f^dXto-rx Travrav 0/ ^ggi 
Tug (px^fixfcit'xg. Varro affirms it is 
a certain truth, that about Lisbon 
some mares conceive by the wind, 
at a certain season, as hens con- 
ceive what is called a wind egg, 
but that the colts conceived in 
this manner do not live above three 
years : " In foetura res incredibilis 
" est in Hispania, sed est vera, 
" quod in Lusitania ad oceanum, 
'' in ea regione ubi est oppidum 
" Olysippo, monte Tagro, quaedam 
*' e vento concipiunt certo tempore 
" equae, ut hie gallinae quoque so- 
" lent, quarum ova vTrmfAix appel- 
" lant." Columella says great care 
must be taken of the mares about 
their horsing time, because if they 
are restrained, they rage with lust, 
whence that poison is called /Viro- 
jttfltvgj, which excites a furious lust, 
like that of mares : that there is 
no doubt, but that in some coun- 
tries the females burn with such 
vehement desires, that if they can- 
not enjoy the male, they conceive 
by the wind, like hens : and that 
in Spain, which runs westward 
towards the ocean, the mares have 
frequently foaled, without having 
had the company of a stallion, but 
these foals are useless, because they 
die in three years ; " Maxime ita- 
" que curandum est praedicto tem- 
*' pore anni, ut tam foeminis, quam 
*^ admissariis desiderantibus coe- 
'' undi fiat potestas, quoniam id 
'' praecipue armentum si prohibeas, 
^' libidinis extimulatur furiis, unde 
'' etiam veneno inditum est nomen 
^' IfFTFo^xni, quod equinae cupidini 



GEORG. LIB. .III. 287 

Exceptantque leves auras : et ssepe sine ullis I'^i Xl"' '*"" ^'""^ '''"*"' 



'* similem mortalibus amorem ac- 
" cendat. Nee dubium quin aliquot 
*' regionibus tanto flagrent ardore 
" coeundi foeminae, ut etiam si 
" marem non habeant, assidua et 
*' nimia cupiditate figurantes sibi 
** ipsae venerem, cohortalium more 
'* avium, vento concipiant. Quae 
*' enim poeta licentius dicit ; Scili- 
" cet ante omnes, &c. Cum sit no- 
" tissimum etiam in Sacro monte 
*' Hispaniae, qui procurrit in occi- 
" dentem juxta oceanum, frequen- 
" ter equas sine coitu ventrem per- 
*' tulisse, fcetumque educasse, qui 
*' tamen inutilis est^ quod triennio 
'' prius quam adolescat, morte ab- 
" sumitur. Quare,ut dixi^dablmus 
" operam, ne circa aequinoctium 
" vernum equae desideriis naturali- 
" bus angantur." Pliny mentions 
Lisbon as a place famous for mares 
conceiving by the west wind : 
" Oppida memorabilia a Tago in 
" ora, Olisippo equarum e favonio 
" vento conceptu nobile." In an- 
other place he says, it is well 
known, that in Portugal, about 
Lisbon and the river Tagus, the 
mares turn themselves against the 
west wind, are impregnated by it, 
and bring forth colts of exceeding 
swiftness, but dying at three years 
old : " Constat in Lusitania circa 
*' Olyssiponem oppidum et Tagum 
** amnem, equas Favonio flanteob- 
" versas animalem concipere spiri- 
*' turn, idque partum fieri, et gigni 
*' pernicissimum ita, sed triennium 
*' vitae non excedere." These quo- 
tations are sufficient to shew, that 
it was generally believed by the 
ancients that mares were impreg- 
nated by the western wind. We 
see that even the gravest prose 
writers assert the truth of this, 
and that they even bring forth 



colts, which live three years. Virgil 
however is very cautious : he does 
not mention the colts i but sup- 
poses only a false conception, 
within which bounds Aristotle alone 
contains himself, of all the writers 
whom we have just now quoted. 
The west wind, or Zephyrus, was 
always reckoned to lead on the 
spring, and to infuse a genial 
warmth through the whole crea- 
tion. Pliny says this wind opens 
the spring, beginning usually to 
blow about the eighth of February j 
and that all vegetables are married 
to it, like the mares in Spain : 
" Primus est conceptus, flare in- 
" cipiente vento Favonio circiter 
" fere sextuni Idus Februarii. Hoc 
" enim maritantur vivescentia e 
*' terra, quo etiam equae in His- 
" pania, ut diximus. Hie est ge- 
*' nitalis spiritus mundi, a fovendo 
^' dictus, ut quidam existimavere. 
*' Flat ab occasu aequinoctiali, ver 
*' inchoans. Catulitionem rustic! 
'* vocant, gestiente natura semina 
" accipere, eaque an imam inferente 
" omnibus satis." Thus also our 
Poet in the second Georgick: 

Parturit almus ager: Zephyrique tepen- 
tibus auris 

Laxant arva sinus : superat tener om- 
nibus humor. 

How far the mares are really af- 
fected, we must leave to be decided 
by the philosophers of Spain and 
Portugal. But that hens will lay 
eggs without the assistance of the 
cock, is a well known fact ; and it 
is as well known, that such eggs 
never produce a living animal. 
These fruitless eggs are called by 
us wind eggs, as Varro calls them 
V7rmfx,iu. ; and thus Aristotle uses a 
like expression with regard to the 
mares, \%etn^cvcr^xt. 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



^r^^o^ntUfi.ScerSim! Conjugiis vento gravidae, mirabile dictu ! 275 

pregnated by the wind, they p, . _ 

fly over hills, and rocks, and feaxa per: et scoDulos, et deDFessas convalles 

dales; not towards thy rising, ^ ■' r ^ r 

u.e^ZTnorto'ZT ''''''' Diffugiunt; non, Eure, tuos, neque solis ad 
ortus : 



277- Non, Eure, tuos, &c.] Here 
Virgil widely differs from Aristotle j 
who says expressly that they run, 
neither towards the east, nor west, 
but towards the north or south. 
Hence some of the critics have 
taken great pains to draw the phi- 
losopher and the poet into the same 
opinion. In order to this, some 
have supposed the poet's meaning 
to be that they run, not towards 
the east, but towards the north, 
west, and south. Thus Grimoal- 
dus paraphrases it: ** Non orien- 
*' tern solem versus, sed in septen- 
*' trionem, in occidentem, et in 
'* austrum nebulosum atque plu- 
*' viosum." Thus also La Cerda : 
" Quin uno excepto Euro, nam 
" cum hoc nullus est illis amor, 
^' alios quoque amant ventos. Cur- 
" runt enim versus Septentrioneni, 
" unde flant Boreas et Caurus : 
" currunt versus Austrum, his enim 
" ventis maritantur." This last 
commentator, not content with 
straining Virgil, lays hold on Aris- 
totle in the next place, and compels 
him to say the very same. Instead of 
^govci SI ovTi !rg05 sa>, evn tt^os ^vtrfcagy 
aXXei Tcpoq cipKrev, t) yorov, he would 
fain read ^ovn Se ov n:^o<; ta, eiXXei TT^og 
^va-fiecg, n a^KTOv, U vorov. He might, 
with as little violence, have made 
Aristotle say BtovTi Ss cv Tr^og su, 
«AAce TTpog dva-fAeig, ov v^og u^xrot n 
toTov, which would have exactly 
agreed with the most obvious 
meaning of Virgil's words. Virgil 
says expressly, that they turn to 
the west; *' ore omnes versae in 
'' Zephyrum ;" which seems the 
most probable, if he spake of the 
mares of Lisbon,- for the nearest 



sea to them is the western ocean, 
and we have heard Aristotle say, 
that they run towards the sea. As 
for the mares which Aristotle men- 
tions, they seem to have been those 
of Crete, and probably fed about 
mount Ida, the most celebrated 
place in that island. This being 
admitted, we need but consider, 
that as Crete extends in length, 
from east to west, and as Ida is in 
the middle of the island, the run- 
ning directly to the sea, and to the 
north or south, is exactly the same 
thing. 

The Eurus, according to Pliny, 
is the south-east: " Ab oriente 
" aequinoctiali Subsolanus, ab 
'* oriente brumali Vulturnus: ilium 
" Apelioten, hunc Eurum Graeci 
'^ appellant." According to Aulus 
Gellius, Eurus is the east, and the 
same with the Subsolanus and Ape- 
liotes : '' Qui ventus igitur ab 
" oriente verno, id est, aequinoctiali 
" venit, nominatur Eurus, ficto 
" vocabulo, utisti Irv^oXoyiKoi aiunt, 
'' uTTo Tiig sa p£*y, is alio quoque a 
" Graecis nomine uTmXtdrng a Ro- 
'* manis nauticis Subsolanus cog- 

" nominatur Hi sunt igitur 

" tres venti orientales, Aquilo, Vu\- 
" turnus, Eurus: quorum medius 
" Eurus est." 

278. Boream.'] Boreas is fre- 
quently used to signify the north : 
but s trictly speaking, it is the north- 
east. Pliny says the north wind is 
called Septentrin, and by the Greeks 
Aparctias, and that the Aquilo, called 
by the Greeks Boreas, is the north 
east: *' A Septentrionibus septem- 
" trio, interque eum et exortum 
" solstitialem Aquilo, Aparctias 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



^89 



In Boream, Caurumque, aut unde nigerrimus biacKstJ;^''"'''''"'' "'''*^"" 
Auster 



" dicti et Boreas," I believe there 
is an error in the copies of Pliny, 
and that instead of interqiie eum et 
exorlum solstitialem we should read 
juxtaque eum ad exorlum solstitialem: 
for the exortus solstitialis is the 
north-east 3 and therefore, accord- 
ing to the common reading", ^orear^ 
will be in the north-north-east j 
whereas Pliny is evidently speaking 
of the compass, as divided only 
into eight points : " Veteres qua- 
'^ tuor omnino servavere, per toti- 
" dem mundi partes, ideo nee Ho- 
*' merus plures nominat, hebeti ut 
*' mox judicatum est ratione: se- 
" cuta a^tas octo addidit, nimis sub- 
'' tili et concisa: proxirais inter 
'^ utramque media placuit, ad bre- 
" vem ex numerosa additis quatuor. 
" Sunt ergo bini in quatuor caeli 
'' partibus ." Aulus Gellius says 
expressly, that Boreas is the north- 
east : " Qui ab aestiva et solstitiali 
'^ orientis meta venit, Latine Aqui- 
*' lo, Boreas Graece dicitur : eum- 
'^ que propterea quidam dicunt ab 
'' Homero oti^^nymrnv appellatum. 
" Boream autem putant dictum 
*' uTTo r*)g ^om, quoniam sit violent! 
*^ flatus et sonori." 

Caurum.'] Caurus, or Corus, ac- 
cording to Pliny, is the north-west: 
*' Ab occasuaequinoctialiFavonius, 
*' ab occasu solstitiali Corus ; Ze- 

*' phyron et Argesten vocant 

*' Huic est contrarius Vulturnus . . 
*' . . Ventorum frigidissimi sunt 
'^ quos a Septentrione diximus spi- 
*' rare, et vicinus iis Corus." Aulus 
Gellius makes Caurus the south- 
west, for he places it opposite to 
Aquilo : '' His oppositi et contrarii 
" sunt alii tres occidui : Caurus, 
" quem solent Graeci agyeVtiv vocare, 
*' is adversus Aquilonem flat." But 



I believe Gellius is mistaken, for 
Virgil, in ver. 356, represents Cau- 
rus as an exceeding cold wind : 

Semper hyems, semper spirantes frigora 
Cauri. 

It will not perhaps be unaccept- 
able to the reader, if in this place I 
shew what names the ancients gave 
to the points of the compass, as 
they are mentioned by Pliny. I 
have already observed that this au- 
thor divided the compass into eight 
parts. These I think were evi- 
dently the north, north-east, east, 
south-east, south, south-west, west, 
and north-west. For in lib. xviii. 
c. 34. where he is speaking of de- 
scribing the parts of heaven in a 
field, he says the meridian line is 
to be cut transversely through the 
middle by another line, which will 
shew the place of the sun's rising 
and setting at the equinox, that is, 
due east and west. Then two other 
lines must be drawn obliquely, from 
each side of the north to each 
side of the south, all through the 
same centre, all of equal length 
and at equal distances : " Diximus 
'* ut in media linea designaretur 
" umbilicus. Per hunc medium 
'^ transversa currat alia. Haec erit 
*' ab exortu asquinoctiali ad occa- 
" sum aequinoctialem. Et limes, 
** qui ita secabit agrum, decuraanus 
" vocabitur. Ducantur deinde aliae 
'* duae linese in decusseis obliquae, 
" ita ut a septentrionis dextra laeva- 
'' que ad austri dextram laevamque 
" descendant. Omnes per eundem 
" currant umbilicum, omnes inter 
'' se pares sint, omnia intervalla 
" paria." The next line to the 
north, towards the east, that is in 
the north-east, is called Aquilo, and 
2p 



290 P. VIRGILII MARONIS 

S'ior/rain:''"'"*''''''^'' Nascitur, ct pluvio coiitristat frigore caelum. 



by the Greeks Boreas: " Ita caeli 
" exacta parte, quod fuerit linese 
*' caput septentrioni proximum a 
'^ parte exortiva, solstitialem habe- 
'' bit exortum, hoc est, longissimi 
*' diei, ventumque Aquilonera, Bo- 
'^ ream a Graecis dictum." The 
point opposite to this, that is, the 
south-west, is named Africus, and 
by the Greeks Libs: ^' Ex adverso 
'* Aquilonis ab occasu brumali Afri- 
*' cus flabit, quem Graeci Liba vo- 
" cant." The wind which blows 
from the east point is called Sub- 
solanus, by the Greeks Apeliotes ; 
opposite to which is the Favonius, 
called Zephyrus by the Greeks : 
" Tertia a septentrione linea, quam 
*' per latitudinem umbrae duximus, 
" et decumanam vocavimus, exor- 
*' turn habet aequinoctlalem, ven- 
*^ tumque Suhsolanum, Graecis Ape- 

*' lioten dictum Favonius ex 

"^ adverso ejus ab sequinoctiali oc- 
'^ casu, Zephyrus a Graecis nomina- 
*' tus." Between the east and the 
south rises the Vultumus, the Greek 
name of which is Eurus ,• and op- 
posite to this, between the north 
and west, is the Coins, or, as the 
Greeks call it, Argestes : " Quarta 
*' a septentrione linea, eadem austro 
'' ab exortiva parte proxima, bru- 
'^ malem habebit exortum, ventum- 
*' que Vulturnum, Eurum a Graecis 

'^ dictum Ex adverso Vullur- 

*' ni flabit Corns, ab occasu solsti- 
*' tiali et occidental! latere septen- 
" trionis, a Graecis dictus Argestes." 
In lib. ii. c. 47. he says the south is 
called Auster, by the Greeks Notus, 
the north Septem trio, by the Greeks 
Aparctias: " A meridie Auster et 
" ab occasu brumali Africus, Noion 

*' et Liba nominant A sep- 

" tentrionibus Septem trio, interque 
" eum et [or rather, as was observed 
*' before^ juxtaque eum ad] exortum 



*^ solstitialem^^uiZoj^/jarciias dicti 
'^ et Boreas."' 

278. Nigerrimus Auster.'^ The 
south wind is called black, because 
of the darkness it occasions, by 
means of the thick showers, which 
it brings with it. Thus in the fifth 
^neid: 

Ruit aethere toto 



Turbidus imber aquis, densisque nigerri- 
mus Austris. 

279. Pluvio contristat frigore cos- 
lum.'] The south was always ac- 
counted a rainy wind. Thus in the 
first Georgick ; 

Quid cogitet humidus Auster : 



A.nd 



Jupiter humidus Austris 



Densat erant quae rara modo. 

And in the third ; 

Vera madent udo terrae ac pluvialibus 
Austris. 

And in the ninth iEneid: 



Jupiter horridus Austris 



Torquet aquosam byemem. 

But I think it seems not quite so 
plain, that it ever was accounted a 
cold wind, I have sometimes in- 
clined to think, that we ought to 
read sidere instead o( frigore, with 
the Roman and Cambridge manu- 
scripts : but that will not fully an- 
swer our purpose, for we have an- 
other instance of the south wind's 
being called cold by Virgil. It is in 
the fourth Georgick, where he says, 

Frigidus ut quondam sylvis imnourmu- 
rat Auster. 

Macrobius endeavours to solve this 
difficulty, by saying the south-wind 
is cold at its origin, and is only ac- 
cidentally warm, by passing through 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



291 



Hinc demum, Hippomanes vero quod nomine Hence a siimy juice at length 

^ '■ *• distils from their groins, 

dicunt 



the torrid zone. But this is a very 
trifling solution. For what signifies 
the coldness of this wind at its ori- 
gin, when it is warm with regard 
to us ? Besides, if I am not much 
mistaken, the ancients had no no- 
tion of its coming from the pole, 
but thought it arose in Africa, which 
was the most southern part of the 
world, that they knew : Lihyce de- 
vexus in Austros., says our poet him- 
self in the first Georgick. And 
Pliny speaks of a rock in the Cy- 
renaic province, which is in Africa, 
that is sacred to the south wind j 
*' Quin et in Cyrenaica provincia, 
" rupes quaedam Austro, traditur 
" sacra, quam profanum sit attrec- 
'' tari hominis manu, confestim 
" austro volvente arenas." Ruaeus 
will have frigus in this place to 
stand only for a rainy season, as 
hyems is also used frequently. This 
I believe is only a conjecture of his 
own. The only way I can find to 
extricate us from this difficulty is 
by observing, that the south wind 
was not always accounted warm. 
Columella speaks of its blowing in 
January and February, and bring- 
ing hail ; ^* XVII. Cal. Feb. Sol in 
*' Aquarium transit, Leo mane inci- 
" pit occidere, Africus, interdum 

'' Auster cum pluvia Cal. Feb. 

" Fidis incipit occidere, ventus euri- 
" nus, et interdum Austercumgran- 

'' dineest Nonas April. Fa- 

" vonius aut Auster, cum grandine." 
Now it appears from the same au- 
thor, that the time when the mares 
are seized with this fury is about 
the vernal equinox: '' Generosis 
'* circa vernum cequinoctium mares 
" jungentur. . . . Maxime itaque cu- 
*' randum est prcedicto tea^pore anni, 
^' ut . , . . desiderantibus coeundi 



" fiat potestas,quoniam id prsecipue 
" armentum si prohibeas, libidinis 
" extimulatur furiis." Virgil there- 
fore speaking of the south-wind 
about the beginning of our March 
calls it cold at that season, with 
great propriety. 

280. Hippomanes vero quod nomine 
dicunt.'] Servius speaks of an herb 
mentioned by Hesiod, under the 
name of Hippomanes,- but I be- 
lieve there is an error in the copy 
of Servius, which I make use of, 
for Fulvius Ursinus represents Ser- 
vius as quoting Theocritus : " Putat 
" Servius intelligendum hoc loco 
" de Hippomane planta, cujus me- 
" minit Theocritus." I do not find 
the mention of any such plant in 
Hesiod, but it is spoken of in the 
Pharmaceutria of Theocritus : 

'l7r9ro[jca,ns <pvrov Iffri 'iru,^ 'A^xdtri. rZ%' 
Ka) <ffuXot (ABtivovrat av u^ia xoti B-oai 

Hippomanes, a plant Arcadia bears; 

This makes steeds mad, and this excites 
the mares. 

Creech. 
The Scholiast upon Theocritus, as 
I find him quoted by Fulvius 
Ursinus, tells us, that Cratevas de- 
scribed the plant Hippomanes, as 
having the fruit of the wild cu- 
cumer, and the leaves of the prickly 
poppy : Kpocrevetg (pxtri to <Putov ix,uv 
Kot^TToy ag ctikvov uy^iov. f*iXUvTipov ^g 
TO (pixXov coTTTig (AViKUVog ufcotvB'eodis . It 
is plain, however, that Virgil does 
not here speak of the plant. Servius 
thinks he adds vero nomine, to in- 
sinuate, that the plant is errone- 
ously called Hippomanes, and that 
it belongs properly to the slime he 
is speaking of. The Poet might 
perhaps allude to the tubercle said 
to be found on the forehead of a* 
2p2 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



which the shepherds properly 
call Hippomanes. The Hip- 
pomanes is often gathered by 
wicked stepmothers, who mix 
heibs with it, and baleful 
charms. But in the mean 
while, time, irreparable time, 
flies away, whilst we, being 
drawn away by love, pursue 
so manj' particulars. Enough 
of herbs; (here remains an- 
other part of our care, to ma- 
uage the woolly flocks, and 
the shaggy goats. This is a 
labour: hence, ye strong hus- 
bandmen, hope for praise. 



Pastores, lentum destillat ab ingiiine virus. 
Hippomanes, quod saepe malae legere novercae, 
Miscueruntque herbas, et non innoxia verba. 
Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus, 
Singula dum capti circumvectamur amore. 285 
Hoc satis armentis : superat pars altera curae, 
Lanigeros agitare greges, hirtasque capellas : 
Hie labor : hinc laudem fortes sperate coloni. 



young colt, when he is just foaled, 
which is by some called Hippo- 
manes, and was sought for in 
incantations, as we find in the 
fourth ^neid : 

Quaeritur et nascentis equi de fronte 

revulsus 
Et matri praereptus amor. 

Pliny says the mare licks this 
tubercle off, as soon as the colt is 
foaled; otherwise she does not 
love him, nor will she admit him 
to suck her ; " Et sane equis amo- 
" ris innasci veneficium, Hippo- 
'* manes appellatum, in fronte, 
*' caricae magnitudine, colore ni- 
" gro : quod statim edito partu 
" devorat foeta, aut partum ad 
" ubera non admittit, si quis prse- 
" reptum habeat." Aristotle also 
mentions it in the eighth book of 
his History of Animals; but he 
treats it as an old woman's story : 
To ^g tTT'^cficcvlg xotXovuivov Itti^Utui 

'iTtTTOt '^i^lMl^OVTXl XCCl KxB^Xl^OVTXl, 

TTi^iTpayova-tv xvTo. rei ^l iTTifAvB^ivofiSvu 
7Fi:T>\.X(rrxt ^oiXXov vtto rZv yvvxtKUV KXt 
rm TTt^f rx? \7r0ihxg. Virgil there- 
fore, who had Aristotle in his eye 
throughout this passage, says that 
this slime is properly called Hip- 
pomanes, in contradistinction [to 
that fictitious tubercle, which has 
usurped that name. 

281. Destillat.'] It is generally 
printed disiillat: but Pierius says 



it is destillat in the Roman, the 
Medicean, the Lombard, and other 
ancient manuscripts. Heinsius also 
admits destillat. 

283. Miscuerunt.'] It is miscuerint 
in one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, 
and in the Roman manuscript, ac- 
cording to Pierius. This line is 
also in the second Georgick : 

Pocula si quando saevae infecere noverccB, 
Miscueruntque herbas, et non innoxia 
verla. 

286. The Poet, having now done 
with bulls and horses, proceeds to 
speak of sheep and goats. But 
being aware of the great difficulty 
in making such mean subjects shine 
in poetry, he invokes Pales to his 
assistance. 

288. Hie.'] Pierius says it is hinc 
in the Medicean, and in most of 
the ancient manuscripts, though 
many of them have hie. The King's, 
both the Arundelian, and both Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts have hinc. The 
Cambridge and the Bodleian copies 
have hie, which reading is admitted 
also by Heinsius, and most of the 
editors. 

Laudem.] It is laudes in the 
King's and in one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts. 

Sperate.'2 It is sperare in the old 
edition printed at Venice, by Jaco- 
bus Rubeus, in 1475, and in that 
by Antonius Bartholomeus in 1476. 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



293 



Nee sum animi dubius, verbis ea vincere mag- 
num 
Quam sit,et angustis hunc addere rebus honorem. 
Sed me Parnassi deserta per ardua dulcis 291 
Raptat amor : juvat ire jugis, qua nulla prior um 
Castaliam molli devertitur orbita clivo. 
Nunc veneranda Pales, magno nunc ore so- 
nandum. 



Nor am I at all ignorant, hovir 
difficult it is to raise this sub- 
ject with lofty expressions, 
and to add due honour to so 
low an argument. Bnt sweet 
love carries me away through 
the rugged desarts of Parnas- 
sus; 1 delight in passing over 
the hills, where no track of 
the ancients turns with an easy 
descent to Castalia. Now, O 
adored Pales, now must I raise 
my strain. 



989. Nee sum animi dubius, &c.] 
This passage is an evident imitation 
of the following lines of Lucretius: 

Nunc age, quod superest, cognosce, et 

clarius audi. 
Nee me animi fallit quam sint obscura, 

sed acri 
Percussit thyrso laudis spes magna 

meum cor, 
Et simul incussit suavem mi in pectus 

amorem 
Musarum : quo nunc instinctus, mente 

vigenti 
Avia Pieridum peragro loca, nullius ante 
Trita solo: juvat integros accedere fon- 

tes, 
Atque haurire : juvatque novos decer- 

pere flores : 
Insignemque meo capiti petere inde 

coronam, 
Unde prius nulli velarint tempora Musae. 

291. Parnassi deserta per ardua.] 
Parnassus is a great mountain of 
Phocis, sacred to Apollo anci the 
Muses. Near it was the city Del- 
phi, famous for the temple and 
oracle of the Pythian Apollo. At 
the foot of this mountain was the 
Castalian spring, sacred to the 
Muses. 

293. Devertitur.] In many co- 
pies it is devertitur: but Pierius 
says it is divertitur in all the ancient 
manuscripts which he has seen. 

Molli clivo.'] Clivus is used both 
for the ascent and descent of a hill. 
Servius understands it in this place 
to signify a descent : '' facili itinere 
'' et descensioneJ" This interpreta- 
tion seems to agree best with 



Virgil's sense J for he speaks of 
passing over the mountain; and 
therefore he must descend again, 
to come to the Castalian spring. 
Grimoaldus however takes it to 
mean an ascent : '' per quae nemo 
" veterum Poetarum facili ascensu 
" trajicerepotuit hactenus." Of the 
same opinion is La Cerda : " Est 
" Castalius fons Musarum, non in 
" ipso vertice Parnassi, sed ad ima, 
*'' ideo tantum per moUem quendam 
" clivum ascensus est ad ilium." 
Dr. Trapp follows this interpre- 
tation : 

By soft ascent 

Inclining to the pure Castalian stream. 

We find an expression like this in 
the ninth Eclogue: 



Qua se subducere colles 



Incipiunt, rnolligue jugum demittere clivo. 
Usque ad aquam, et veteris jam fracta 
cacumina fagi. 

Here molli clivo plainly signifies an 
easy descent; and thus it is under- 
stood by La Cerda himself: " A 
'' clivo quopi^Ti molli leniterque 
'' subducto usque ad aquam Mincii 
" fluminis, et fagum, cui prse senio 
'* fracta cacumina." Thus also Dr. 
Trapp translates this passage ; 

Where the hills begin 

To lessen by an easy soft descent, 
Down to the water, and the stunted 
beech. 

294. Pales.] See the note on 
ver. 1. 



294 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



JhV^sLep'sh'Sle^rdSd Incipiens stabulis edico in mollibus herbam 295 

in soft cotes, till (he leafy n t -, • 

sammer returns: and that the Carpere oves, dum mox iFondosa reducitur 

hard groniid should be strew- ■» ^ 



groniid 
cd with a good quantity 



aestas 



Et multa duram stipula filicumque manipli§ 



Sonandum.'] It is canendum in 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 

295. Incipiens, &c.] In this pas- 
sage the Poet treats of the care of 
sheep and goats, during the winter 
season. 

Slabulis in mollibus.'] Servius in- 
terprets mollibus warm : " clemen- 
" tioribus et aeris temperati ; vel 
*' propter plagam australem, vel 
" propter suppositas herbas anima- 
*' libus." In this he is followed by 
Dr. Trapp : 

First, I ordain, that in warm huts the 

sheep 
Be fodder'd. 

I rather choose, witli La Cerda, to 
give mollibus its usual sense soft, 
because he immediately tells us 
that the hard ground should be 
littered with straw and brakes. 
Thus also May translates it : 

But first I counsell to containe 



Your sheep within soft stals to feed at 
home. 

Besides, Columella expressly says, 
that this litter is used, that the 
sheep may lie soft: '' Deturque 
" opera, nequis humor subsistat, 
'' ut semper quam aridissimis fili- 
*' cibus, vel culmis stabula con- 
*' strata sint, quo purius et moUius 
'* incubent fcetae." It is not very 
usual with us, to house our sheep, 
notwithstanding our climate is less 
mild than that of Italy. But Mr. 
Mortimer observes, that " in Glou- 
'^ cestershire they house their sheep 
'' every night, and litter them 
" with clean straw, which affords a 
^' great advantage to their land by 



'' the manure, and they say makes 
*' their wool very fine." 

Herbam carpere.] Cato says the 
sheep should be foddered with he 
leaves of poplars, elms, and oaks: 
" Frondem populneam, ulmeam, 
" querneam caedito, per tempus 
" earn condito, non peraridam, 
" pabulum ovibus." Varro men- 
tions fig-leaves, chaff, grape-stones, 
and bran : '' His quaecunque ju- 
" bentur, vescuntur, ut folia ficul- 
" 'nea, et palea, et vinacea : furfures 
" objiciuntur modice, ne parum, 
" aut nimium saturentur.'' Co- 
lumella speaks also of elm and 
ash leaves: " Aluntur autem com- 
*' modissime repositis ulmeis, vel ex 
" fraxino frondibus." 

296. Dum mox frondosa reducitur 
oestas/] The meaning of this is, 
that the sheep are to be housed, till 
the warm weather has produced a 
sufficient quantity of fresh food for 
them in the open fields. We can- 
not suppose that summer is to be 
taken here in a strict sense; for 
tiiat season began on the ninth of 
May : and surely they tiever housed 
their sheep till that time. 

297- Duram humum.] He calls 
the ground hard, because it was 
usual to pave their sheep-cotes 
with stone: '^ Horum praesepia 
" ac stabula, ut sint pura, majorem 
" adhibeaiJt diligentiam quam hir« 
" tis. Itaque faciunt lapide strata, 
*' ut urina necubi in stabulo con- 
" sistiU." 

Stipula filicumque maniplis.] For 
filex see ver. 189. of the second 
book. 

The writers of agriculture are 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



S95 



Sternere subter humum, glacies ne frigida laedat brakes- JhV^^^ £"^'S .,^ 
Molle pecus, scabiemque ferat, turpesqiie poda- bring the scab and io«i gouts. 



gras. 



299 



particularly careful to give instruc- 
tions about keeping the sheep clean 
and dry in their cotes. ThusCato; 
*' Pecori et bubus diligenter sub- 
" sternatur, ungulae curentur .... 
'* Stramenta si deerunt, frondem 
" iligneam legito, earn substernito 
" ovibus bubusque." Varro says 
the pavement should be laid slop- 
ing, that it may easily be swept 
clean,- because wet spoils the wool 
and disorders the sheep. He adds, 
that fresh litter should be often 
given them, that they may lie soft 
and clean: *' Ubi stent, solum 
*' oportet esse eruderatum, et pro- 
'* clivum, ut everri facile possit, ac 
*' fieri pnrum ; non enim solum ea 
" uligolanam corrumpitovium, sed 
*' etiam ungulas, ac scabras fieri 
*' cogit. Cum aliquot dies stete- 
'' runt, subjicere oportet virgulta 
" alia, quo moUius requiescant, 
" purioresque sint: libentius enim 
'* ita pascuntur." 

298. Glacies ne frigida laedat molle 
pecus.'} Columella says, that sheep, 
though they are the best clothed 
of all animals, are nevertheless the 
most impatient both of cold and 
heat : '^ Id pecus, quamvis ex om- 
" nibus animalibus vestitissimum, 
" frigoris tamen impatientissimum 
'^ est, nee minus sestivi vaporis." 

299. Scabiem.'] See ver. 441. 

Turpesque podagras.'] I have ven- 
tured to translate podagra the gout, 
though I have not been informed 
that our sheep are ever subject to 
such a distemper. The Poet cer- 
tainly means some kind of tumour 
in the feet: and probably it is the 
same distemper with that, which 
Columella has described under the 



name of clavi. He says they are 
of two sorts : one is, when there is 
a filth and galling in the parting of 
the hoof; the other when there is 
a tubercle in the same place, with a 
hair in the middle, and a worm 
under it. The former is cured by 
tar ; or by alum and sulphur mixed 
with vinegar; or by a young pome- 
granate, before the seeds are formed, 
pounded with alum, and then co- 
vered with vinegar ; or by verdi- 
gris crumbled upon it; or by burnt 
galls levigated with austere wine, 
and laid upon the part. The tu- 
bercle, which has the worm at the 
bottom, must be cut carefully round, 
that the animalcule be not wounded, 
for if that should happen, it sends 
forth a venomous sanies, which 
makes the wound incurable, so that 
the whole foot must be taken off: 
and when you have carefully cut 
out the tubercle, you must drop 
melted suet into the place : "' Clavi 
" quoque dupliciter infestant ovem, 
*' sive cum subluvies atque inter- 
' trigo in ipso discrimine ungulse 
" nascitur, seu cum idem locus tu- 
'' berculum habet, cujus media fere 
'' parte canino similis extat pilus, 
" eique subest vermiculus. Sub- 
'' luvies, et intertrigo pice per se 
'^ liquida, vel alumine et sulfure, 
" atque aceto mistis rite eruentur, 
'' vel tenero punico malo, prius 
*' quam grana faciat, cum alumine 
" pinsito, superfusaque aceto, vel 
" aeris eerugine infriata, vel com- 
** busta galla cum austero vino le- 
*/ vigata, et superposita: tubercu- 
'^ lum, cui subest vermiculus, ferro 
'^ quam acutissiiae circumsecari 
" oportet, ne, dum amputatur etiam. 



296 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Then leaving the sheep, I 
order the leaty arbutes to suf- 
fice the goats: and that they 
should have fresh water, and 
that the cotes should be turn- 
ed from the winds opposite 
to the winter sun, being ex- 
posed to the south ; when cold 
Aquarius now sets, and pours 
forth his water at the end of 
the year. Nor are these to 
be tended by us with less 
care, nor are they less useful ; 
though the Milesian 



Post hinc digressus jubeo frondentia capris 300 
Arbuta sufficere, et fluvios praebere recentes ; 
Et stabula a ventis hyberno opponere soli 
Ad medium conversa diem ; cum frigidus olim 
Jam cadit, extremoque irrorat Aquarius anno. 
Hae quoque non cura nobis leviore tuendae, 305 
Nee minor usus erit : quamvis Milesia magno 



*' quod infra est, animal vulnere- 
** mus : id enira cum sauciatur, ve- 
*' nenatam saniem mittit, qua re- 
** spersum vulnus ita insanabilefa- 
'^ cit, ut totus pes amputandus sit: 
*' et cum tuberculum diligenter cir- 
" cumcideris, candens sevum vul- 
" neri per ardentem taedam instil- 
'' lato." Perhaps Virgil means the 
first sort, and therefore gives this 
disease the epithet turpis. 

300. Frondentia arhutaJ] In the 
first book, Virgil uses arbuium for 
the fruit, and in the second, arbutus 
for the tree : but here arbutum is 
nsed for the tree. The epithet 
frondentia is a plain proof, that in 
this place he means the tree, which 
is an ever-green, and therefore sup- 
plies the goats with browse in win- 
ter, of which season Virgil is now 
speaking. Columella mentions the 
arbutui among those shrubs which 
are coveted by goats : "^^ Id autem 
" genus dumeta potius, quam cam- 
"■ pestresitumdesiderat: asperisque 
*' etiam locis, ac sylvestribus optirae 
'^ pascitur. Nam nee rubos aver- 
** satur, nee vepribus oiFenditur, et 
" arbusculis, frutetisque maxime 
*' gaudet. Ed sunt arbutus, atque 
" alaternus, cytisusque agrestis. 
'' Nee minus ilignei, querneique 
^' frutices, qui in altitudinem non 
'' prosiliunt." 

303. Cum frigidus olim jam cadit, 
&c.] In one of the Arundelian 
manuscripts it is dum instead of 
cum. 



In this place, as Ruaeus well ob- 
serves, Virgil must mean that year 
which began with March, for Aqua- 
rius was reckoned to rise about the 
middle of January, and to set about 
the middle of February. Aquarius 
is represented pouring water out of 
an urn, and was esteemed a rainy 
si^n. 

305. HcB .... tuendcB.'] Servius 
reads hcec .... tuenda, and says the 
Poet uses the neuter gender figura- 
tively. In this he is followed by 
several of the oldest editors. But 
Heinsius, and almost all the late 
editors read hce . . . . tuendcB, which 
reading I find also in all the manu- 
scripts which 1 have collated. In 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts it 
is nee instead of hce. 

306. Nee minor usus erit.~\ Goats 
are of no less value than sheep : for 
they are very fruitful, and yield 
abundance of milk, which is very 
little, if at all, inferior to that of the 
ass, in nourishing weak, and re- 
storing wasting bodies. They are 
kept with very little expence, for 
they will feed on briars, and almost 
any wild shrubs. The kids are 
very good meat : they climb the 
steepest rocks and precipices : 
though their feet do not at all seem 
to be made for that purpose. 

Quamvis Milesia ynagno vellera 
mutentur.'] Miletus was a city on 
the borders of Ionia and Caria, fa- 
mous for the best wool, of which the 
Milesian garments were made, which 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



<m 



Vellera mutentur, Tyrios incocta rubores. 
Densior hinc soboles ; hinc largi copia lactis. 
Quam magis exhausto spumaverit ubere mulc- 
tra; 309 

Laeta magis pressis manabunt flumina mammis. 
Nee minus interea barbas incanaque menta, 



fleeces being stained with Ty- 
rian dye sell tor a large price. 
These are more fruitful, these 
afford a greater plenty of 
milk. The inorethe pail froths 
with their exhausted udders, 
the larger streams will flow 
from their pressed dugs. Be- 
sides, the beards and hoary 
chins. 



were greatly esteemed by the ladies, 
for their delicate softness. 

In magno mutentur the Poet 
alludes to the ancient custom of 
changing one commodity for an- 
other, before tlie general use of 
money. 

307. Tyrios incocta rubores,] See 
the note on Tyrio conspectus in 
ostro, ver. 17. 

308. Densior hinc soboles.] Co- 
lumella says a goat, if she is of a 
good sort, frequently brings forth 
two, and sometimes three kids at a 
time : *' Parit autem si est generosa 
" proles, frequenter duos, nonnun- 
'^ quam trigeminos." 

309. Quam magis.'] Pierius says 
it is quo magis in the Roman, and 
other ancient manuscripts. 

SIO. Flumi?ia.'2 So I read, with 
Heinsius, and Ruaeus. Pierius says 
it is ubera, in the Roman, the Lom- 
bard, and other very ancient manu- 
scripts. He seems to think ubera 
the true reading 3 and that the 
transcribers, observing w6ere in the 
preceding line, were afraid of re- 
peating ubera in this ; and therefore 
substituted /Mmmo, La Cerda also 
thinks, that those who read flumina, 
deprive this passage of a great ele- 
gance. I find ubera in the King's, 
the Bodleian, both the Arundelian, 
and both Dr. Mead's manuscrij)ts. 
In the Cambridge manuscript, and 
in most of the latter editions, it is 
fiumina, which appears to be no 
inelegant reading. Pierius also al- 
lows that flumina is a metaphoriqal 
hyperbole, very proper in this 



place to express an extraordinary 
abundance of milk. 

311. Barbas incanaque menta Ce- 
nyphii tondent hirci.'] Cinyphus, ac- 
cording to Strabo, is a river of 
Africa. According to Pliny, Cynips 
is the name both of a river and a 
country : *^ Augylae ipsi medio fere 
" spatio locantur ab Ethiopia, quae 
** ad occidentem vergit, et a regione 
" quse duas Syrtes interjacet, pari 
" utrinque intervallo, sed littore 
" inter duas Syrtes, ccl. M. pass. 
*' Ibi civitas OEensis, Cynips fluvius 
" ac regio." This country seems 
to be that which is now called 
Tripoly, CEa being one of the three 
cities, which were joined to make 
the city TripoUs. This country 
was famous for goats with the 
longest hair; whence these animals 
are often called Cinyphian. Thus 
Martial : 

Cujus livida naribus caninis 
Dependet glacies, rigetque barba, 
Qualem forficibus metit supinis 
Tonsor CinypMo Cylix marito: 

and 

Non hos lana dedit, sed olentis barba 
mariti : 
Cinyphio poterit planta latere sinu. 

Some grammarians take Cyniphii 
hirci to be the nominative case, and 
tondent to he put for tondentur. 
But the general opinion is, that 
Cinyphii hirci is the genitive case; 
and that pastores understood is the 
nominative case before the active 
verb tondent. Perhaps Cinyphii is 
the nominative case to tondent : and, 
'2q 



298 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and shaggy hairs of the Ciny- 
phian goats are shorn, for the 
use of the camps, and for 
coverings to miserable mari- 
ners. But they feed in the 
woods, and on tiie summits of 
Lyczeus, and browse on the 
prickly brambles, and the 
bushes that love high places. 
And the she-goats remember 
to return to their cotes of their 
own accord, and carry their 
kids with them, and can 
scarce step over the threshold 
with their swelLing udders. 
Therefore, as they take less 
care to provide against want, 
you must be the more careful 
to defend them from ice and 
snowy winds; and joyfully 
supply them with food, and 
twiggy pasture : nor must you 
shut up your stores of hay 
during the whole winter. But 
when the warm weather re- 
joices with inviting Zephyrs, 



Cinyphii tondeiit hirci, setasque comantes, 
Usum in castrorum, et miseris velamina nautis?. 
Pascuntur vero sylvas et summa Lycaei, 314 
Horrentesque rubos, et araantes ardua dumos. 
Atque ipsae memores redeunt in tecta, suosque 
Ducunt, et gravido superant vix ubere limen. 
Ergo omni studio glaciem ventosque nivales, 
Quo minor est illis curas mortalis egestas, 
Avertes ; victumque feres, et virgea laetus 320 
Pabula ; nee tota claudes foenilia bruma. 
At vero, zephyris cum lasta vocantibus aestas, 



then this passage should be thus 
translated : " the Cinyphians shave 
'' the beards and hoary chins of the 
*' ^oat." This sense is admitted by 
Grimoaldus : " Libyci pastor es ab- 
*' radunt hirquinas barbas, &c." 
Cinyphius is used for the people 
by Martial : 

Stat caper jEolio Thebani vellere Phryxi 
Cultus : ab hoc mallet vecta fuisse soror. 

Hunc nee Cinyphius tonsor violaverit, 
et tu 
Ipse tua pasci vite. Lyase, velis. 

Pierius says it is hircis in the Ro- 
man and in some other ancient 
manuscripts. 

313. Usum in castrorum, et miseris 
velamina nautis.'\ Varro says that 
goats are shorn for the use of 
sailors, and engines of war : " Ut 
'' fructum ovis e lana ad vestinien- 
" turn : sic capra pilos ministrat ad 
'' usum nauticum, et ad bellica tor- 
*' menta, et fabrilia vasa." 

314. Lyccei.'] LycoBus is a moun- 
tain of Arcadia. It seems to be put 
here for mountains in general. 

315. Horrentesque ruhosr\ Rubus 
is the bramble or blackberry bush ; 
for Pliny says they bear a fruit like 
mulberries : " Rubi mora ferunt." 

31 6. Suosque ducunt.'] Servius 
interprets sv.os their young: in 



which he is followed by most of 
the commentators and translators. 
But La Cerda thinks it means their 
pastors. 

319. Mifior.'] Servius reads mzMor. 
It is minor also in the Cambridge, 
the Bodleian, both the Arundelian, 
and in one of Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts. In the other manuscript 
of Dr. Mead it is minus, which is 
admitted by Heinsius, and most of 
the editors. But the frequent re- 
petition of s in this line induces me 
to believe, that Virgil rather wrote 
minor, to avoid a disagreeable sibi- 
lation. In the old Nurenberg edi- 
tion it is minor. In the King's 
manuscript it is major, which can- 
not be right. 

The sense of this passage seems 
to be, that as goats give us so little 
trouble, browsing upon any wild 
bushes, which sheep will not touch ; 
as they wander over the rocks and 
precipices, where other cattle can- 
not tread ,- as they come home of 
their own accord, without requiring 
the care of a shepherd ; we ought 
in justice to take care of them, 
and allow them a sufficient quan- 
tity of food in winter. 

322. At vero, &c.] In this pas- 
sage we are informed how sheep 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



299 



In saltus utrumque gregem atque in pasciia Ss'So "ZiJta ""imo 

pastures. Let us take the 
mitteS. «^"ol fields at the first rising of 

Lucifer, whilst the morning 
is new, whilst the grass is 
hoary, and the dew upon the 
tender herbs is most grateful 

mus, dum mane novum, dum gramina lLfo'nnhhour1.fhe5ven"^^^^^^^ 

r,r^^ liave brought on thirst, 

canent, 325 

Et ros in tenera pecori gratissimus herba. 
Inde, ubi quarta sitim caeli collegerit hora. 



Luciferi primo cum sidere frigida rura 
Carpa 



and goats are to be managed, when 
the weather begins to grow warm. 

Zephyris cum lata vocantihus 
cestas.'] The west wind, called by 
the Romans Favonius, and by the 
Greeks Zephyrus, was thought to 
introduce the spring. Thus Pliny: 
*' Tertia aseptentrione linea, quam 
" per latitudinem umbrae duximus, 
'^ et decumanam vocavimus, exor- 
" turn habet aequinoctialem, ven- 
" tumque Subsolanum, Graecis Ape- 
*' lioten dictum. In hunc salubri- 
" bus locis villee vineaque spectent. 
'' Ipse leniter pluvius, tamen est 
'^ siccior Favonius, ex adverso ejus 
" ab sequinoctiali occasu, Zephyrus 
" a Grsecis nominatus. In hunc 
" spectare olivetaCato jussit. Hie 
" ver inchoat, aperitque terras tenui 
" frigore saluber. Hie vites pu- 
'' tandi, frugesque curandl, arbores 
*' serendi, poma inserendi, oleas 
" tractandi jus dabit affiatuque nu- 
" tricium exercebit." 

I have translated cestas warm 
weather in this place. He means 
by this word, from the beginning 
of the spring to the autumnal equi- 
nox. See the note on ver. 2^6. 

323. Mittes.'] Fulvius Ursinus 
says it is mittet in some ancient 
manuscripts, which he takes to be 
the true reading. 

324. Luciferi.'] The planet Ve- 
nus, when she appears in the even- 
ing, is called Vesper or Hesperus; 
in the morning she is called Luci- 



fer. Columella approves of the 
time of feeding and watering, men- 
tioned by the Poet : " De tempori- 
'* bus autem pascendi, et ad aquam 
"■ ducendi per aestatem non aliter 
'' sentio, quam ut prodidit Maro : 
" Luciferi primo, &c." 

325. Dum mane novum, &c.] 
Here the Poet follows Varro: 

" ^Estate prima luce exeunt 

" pastum, propterea quod tunc 
'^ herba roscida meridianam, quae 
" est aridior, jucunditate praestat." 

326. Herba.'] Most of the editors 
have est after herba : 1 find it also 
in both Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 
It is wanting however in the King's, 
the Cambridge, the Bodleian, and 
both the Arundelian manuscripts. 
Heinsius also and Masvicius leave 
out est. 

This verse is also in the eighth 
Eclogue. 

327. Ubi quarta sitim cceU colle- 
gerit hora.] The Poet is thought to 
mean such hours, as divide the ar- 
tificial day into twelve equal parts. 
Thus, at the equinox, the fourth 
hour will be at ten in the morning: 
but at the solstice, it will be at half 
an hour after nine in Italy, where 
the day is then fifteen hours long, 
according to Pliny: " Sic lit, ut 
" vario lucis incremento in Meroe 
" longissimus dies xii horas sequi- 
" noctiales, et octo partes unius 
" horae colligat, Alexandriae vero 
'* xiv horas. In Italia quindecim 

2q2 



300 



r, VIRGILII MARONIS 



shali/r'ndZtee^^hM^^^^^ Et caiitu queiulse Tumpeiit arbusta cicada?; 

singing, command tlie flocks 

to ■ " 

oaken 

hU? of noon^iet lAem Uk thi Currentem iliffnis potare canalibus undam; 330 

shady valley, . . . 

^stibus at mediis umbrosam exquirere vallem, 



iging, command the flocks 

£totVs:"at";hlweiLso"r ^^ putcos, aut alta gFcgcs ad stagna jubeto 



" In Britannia xvii." In England, 
according to this interpretation, the 
fourth hour will be about nine. 

Grimoaldus seems to understand 
the Poet to mean by the words now 
under consideration, when the fourth 
hour has gathered the drought of the 
air : *' cum hora post exortum so- 
" lem quarta siccitatem aeris con- 
" traxerit, roremque calore absump- 
*' serit." In this sense May trans- 
lates it: 

— — — That dew away 

Tan e by the fourth houres thirsty sun. 

But I rather believe, with La Cerda, 
that Virgil's meaning is, when the 
fourth hour of the day has made the 
cattle thirsty. Ovid uses sitim colli- 
gere not for gathering up the dew, 
but for growing thirsty : 

Jamque Chimaeriferac, cum sol gravis 

ureret arva, 
Finibus in LyciaB longo dea fessa labore, 
Sidereo siccata sitim collegit ab sestu. 

Dr. Trapp's translation is according 
to this sense : 

— — — But when advancing day, 
At the fourth hour, gives thirst to men 
and beasts. 

Dryden comprehends both inter- 
pretations : 

But when the day's fourth hour has 

drawn the dews. 
And the sun's sultry heat their thirst 
renews. 

328. Et cantu querulce rumpent 
arbusta cicadcs.^ This line is an 
imitation of Hesiod, if Hesiod is the 
author of the 'Actt/V 'H^uxT^iov^ : 



It has been usual to render cicada 
grasshopper, but very erroneously : 
for the cicada is an insect of a very 
different sort. It has a rounder and 
shorter body, is of a dark green co- 
lour, sits upon trees, and makes a 
noise five times louder than a grass- 
hopper. They begin their song as 
soon as the sun grows hot, and con- 
tinue singing till it sets. Their 
wings are beautiful, being streaked 
with silver, and marked with brown 
spots. The outer wings are twice 
as long as the inner, and more va- 
riegated. They are very numerous 
in the hot countries, but have not 
been found on this side the Alps 
and Cevennes. The proper Latin 
name for a grasshopper is locusta. 

Tithonus the son of Laomedon, 
king of Troy, was beloved by Au- 
rora, and obtained of her an ex- 
ceeding long life. When he had 
lived many years, he at length 
dwindled into a cicada : thus Ho- 
race: 

Longa TithonuiTi minuit senectus. 

The Poet is thought to allude to 
this fable, when he uses the epithet 
querulcE. 

3S0. Ilignis canalibus.^ Ilex is 
the ever-green or holm oak. Pie- 
rius says it is lignis for ligneis in 
the Roman manuscript: I find in 
lignis in the King's manuscript. 

331. JEstibus at mediis umbrosam 
exquirere vallem,^ ''In the Lombard 
*' manuscript it is cestibus aut mediis: 
" in some other ancient copies ac 
" mediis: in the Lombard acquirere, 
" which I do not like. But I am 
** not displeased with at instead of 
*' aut; for thus there are four pre- 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



301 



Sicubi magna Jovis antique robore quercus 
Ingentes tendat ramos : aut sicubi nigrum 
Ilicibus crebris sacra nemus accubet umbra. 
Tum tenues dare rursus aquas, et pascere 

rursus 335 

Solis ad occasum : cum frigidus aera vesper 
Temperat, et saltus reficit jam roscida luna, 
Litoraque Alcyonen resonant, acalanthida 

dumi. 



where some large old oak of 
Jupiter extends its spreading 
boughs, or where some dusky- 
grove of thick holm-oaks lets 
fall its sacred shade. Then let 
them have clear water again, 
and be fed again at the setting 
of the sun; when cool Vesper 
tempers the air, and the dewy 
moon now refreshes the lawns, 
and the shores resound with 
halcyon::, and the bushes with 
gold-fiticlies. 



'' cepts to be observed every day j 
'' to feed them in the morning, to 
" give them drink at the fourth 
" hour, to shade them at noon, and 
*' to feed them again in the even- 
*' ing." PiERius. 

I find ac in some old editions: 
it is aut in the King's manuscript, 
et in one of Dr. Mead's, and iit in 
the old Venice edition of 1482. 
But at is generally received. 

This precept of shading the sheep 
at noon is taken from Varro: *'Cir- 
*' citer meridianos aestus, dum de- 
'' fervescant, sub umbriferas rupes, 
'' et arbores patulas subjiciunt, 
*' quoad refrigerato aere vespertino, 
'* rursus pascant ad solis occasum." 
We find an allusion to this custom, 
in the Canticles: " Tell me, O thou 
" whom my soul loveth, where thou 
" feedest, where thou makest thy 
" flock to rest at noon." 

338. Litoraque Alcyonem reso- 
nant^ See the note on dilecice The- 
tidi Alcyones, book i. ver. 399* 

Acalanthida dumi.~\ Most editors 
agree in reading et Acanthida dumi: 
but Pierius affirms, that it is acalan- 
thida in all the manuscripts, which 
is admitted by Heinsius and Mas- 
vicius. In the King's, and in one 
of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, it is 
athlanthida; in both the Arunde- 
lian copies it is athalantida ; in the 
old Nurenberg edition it is achan- 



tida. Acalantlns is seldom to be met 
with in authors : Suidas mentions 
it as the name of a bird : 'AauXecySk, 
iilScg o^viov. It is thought to be the 
same with dKctvftg, which seems to 
be derived from uKotvSx, a prickle, 
because it lives amongst thorns, 
and eats the seeds of thistles. 
Hence in Latin it is called carduelis, 
from cardmis, a thistle, in Italian 
cardello or cardellino, and is by us 
a tlmtle-finch, and, from a beautiful 
yellow stripe across its wing, a gold- 
Jinch. Some take it to be a night- 
ingale, others a linnet. May trans- 
lates it a linnet: 

— — Kings-fishers play on shore, 
And thistles' tops are filled with linnets' 
store. 

And Dryden : 

When linnets fill the woods with tuneful 
sound. 

And hollow shores the halcyon's voice re- 
bound. 

La Cerda thinks it is what they call 
in Spanish silgnero, and Ruseus says 
it is the chardoneret, both which 
names belong to the bird, which 
we call a goldfinch. Thus also 
Dr. Trapp translates it : 



■ The shores halcyone resound ; 

And the sweet goldfinch warbles thro* 
the brakes. 

As the Poet describes the evening 



302 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



JJ^ru'y'o'u'ofTheXprrol Quid tibi pastores Libyse, quid pascua versu 



I-iby 



by the singing of this bird, it is not 
improbable that he might mean the 
nightingale: but as I do not find 
any sufficient authority to translate 
acalanihis a mghtwgale, I have ad- 
hered to the common opinion, in 
rendering it a goldfinch. 

339. Quid tibi pastores, &c.] 
Having just mentioned the care of 
keeping sheep and goats within 
doors, he lakes occasion to digress 
poetically into an account of the 
African shepherds, who wander 
with their flocks over the vast de- 
sarts, without any settled habita- 
tion. 

Libya was used by the ancients, 
to express not only a part of Africa, 
adjoining to Egypt, but also all that 
division of the world, which is 
usually called Africa. It is gene- 
rally thought, that the Poet in this 
place means the Numidians, or 
Noraades, so called from ropi pas- 
ture, who used to change their ha- 
bitations, carrying their tents along 
with them, according to Pliny: 
*' Numidae vero Nomades, a per- 
" mutandis pabulis: mapalia sua, 
" hoc est domus, plaustris circum- 
*' ferentes." Sallust also gives an 
account of the origin of these Nu-^ 
midians, and describes their mapa- 
lia or tents. He tells us that, ac- 
cording; to the opinion of the Afri- 
cans, Hercules died in Spain, upon 
which his army, that was composed 
of divers nations, dispersed and 
settled colonies in several places. 
The Medes, Persians, and Arme- 
nians, pa-sed over into Africa, and 
possessed those parts, which were 
nearest the Tyrrhene sea. The 
Persians settling more within the 
ocean, and finding no timber in 
their own country, and having no 
opportunity of trading with Spain, 
on account of the lare;eness of the 



sea between them, and of their not 
understanding each other's lan- 
guage, had no other way of making 
houses than by turning the keels of 
their vessels upwards, and living 
under the shelter of them. They 
intermarried with the GcBtuli, and 
because they often changed their 
seats, according to the difference of 
pasture, they called themselves Nu- 
midians. He adds, that even in his 
time the wandering Numidians 
made their houses or tents with 
long bending roofs, like hulks of 
ships, which they call mapalia. 
" Sed postquam in Hispania Her- 
" cules, sicut Afri putant, interiit: 
" exercitus ejus compositus ex gen- 
" tibus variis, amisso duce, ac pas- 
'' sim multis sibi quisque imperium 
'' petentibus, brevi dilabitur. Ex 
" eo numero Medi, Persae, et Ar- 
" menii, navibus in Africam trans- 
" vecti, proximos nostro mari locos 
" occupavere. Sed Persae intra 
'' Oceanum magis : hique alveos 
'' navium inversos pro tuguriis ha- 
" buere: quia neque materia in 
" agris, neque ab Hispanis emundi, 
" aut mutandi copia erat. Mare 
" magnum, et ignara lingua com- 
'' mercia prohibebant. Hi paulatim 
" per connubia Gaetulos secum mis- 
" cuere,etquias8epetentantesagros, 
" alia, deinde alia loca petiverant, 
" seraetipsi, Nttinidas appellavere. 
" Caeterum adhuc aedificia Numi- 
" darum agrestium, quas mapalia 
" illi vocant, oblonga, incurvis la- 
" teribus tecta, quasi navium cari- 
" nse sunt." The Numidians there- 
fore being famous for feeding cattle, 
and having no settled habitation, 
the Poet is supposed to use Libya 
or Africa for Numidia. But perhaps 
he might allude to the ancient in- 
habitants of Africa; who were the 
Gcetuli and the Libyes, and lived 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



303 



Prosequar, et raris habitata mapalia tectis? 340 ?a'le,''SSrtl?:cS'£'^Se 



Saepe diem noctemque, et totum ex ordine 



mensem 



Pascitur, itque pecus longa in deserta sine ullis 
Hospitiis : tantum cam pi jacet : omnia secum 
Armentarius Afer agit, tectumque, Laremque, 



both day and niylit, for 
whole montli together, and go 
through long desarts, without 
any fixed abode : so far do the 
plains extend: the African 
shepherd carries his all with 
hioi, his house, his gods, 



upon cattle, being governed by no 
law, but wandering up and down, 
and pitching their tents where 
night overtook them. We learn 
this from the Carthaginian books, 
ascribed to king Hiempsal, as they 
are quoted by Sallust : '' Sed qui 
" mortales initio Africam habuerint, 
*' quique posteaaccesserint, autquo 
" raodointer sepermixti sint; quan- 
" quam ab ea fama, quae plerosque 
" obtinet, diversum est; tamen uti 
*^ exlibris Punicis, qui regis Hiemp- 
" salis (licebantur, interpretatum 
'^ nobis est; utique rem sese habere 
" cultores ejus terrae putant ; quam 
^' paucissimis dicam: caeterum fides 
*' ejus rei penes autores erit. Afri- 
" cam initium habuere Gaetuli, et 
*' Libyes, asperi incultique ; queis 
*' cibus erat caro ferina atque humi 
*' pabulum, uti pecoribus. Hi ne- 
" que moribus, neque lege, aut im- 
*' perio cujusquam regebantur: va- 
*' gi, palantes, quas nox coegerat 
" sedes habebant." The nations, 
which in the most ancient times 
dwelt on the east of Egypt, seem 
to have been shepherds, as we may 
gather from many passages in the 
history of Abraham and his de- 
scendants. The religion and cus- 
toms of these people were very op- 
posite to those of the Egyptians, 
who were often invaded by them. 
Hence we find in the history of 
Joseph, that every shepherd was an 
abomination to the Egyptians. When 
the children of Israel departed out 
of Egypt, the inheritance which 
God gave them was in the country 



inhabited by these shepherds : who 
being expelled by Joshua, invaded 
the lower Egypt, easily conquered 
it, and erected a kingdom, which 
was governed by a succession of 
kings of the race of these shepherds. 
They were afterwards expelled by 
the kings of the upper Egypt, and 
fled into Phoenicia, Arabia, Lybia, 
and other places, in the days of 
Eli, Samuel, Saul, and David. 
This seems to be the most ancient 
accountof the inhabitants of Libya ; 
whom therefore we find to have 
been originally shepherds. 

I am not ignorant that this sys- 
tem is contrary to the opinion of 
some chronologers, who make the 
invasion of Egypt by the shepherds 
much more ancient, and suppose 
that king of Egypt, with whom 
Abraham conversed, to have been 
of that race. But, as Sir Isaac 
Newton observes, it is plain that 
Egypt was not under the govern- 
ment of the shepherds in the time 
of Joseph, but were either driven 
out before that time, or did not 
invade Egypt till after the depar- 
ture of the children of Israel ; 
which latter opinion seems most 
probable, as the best authorities 
place the time of their expulsion a 
little before the building of the 
temple of Solomon. 

343. Campi.'] In one of the 
Arundelian, and in one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts, it is campis. 

34:4!. Laremque.l It is lahoremque 
in the Roman manuscript, accord- 
ing to Pierius. But laremque is 



304 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



his arms, his Amyclcan dog, 
and his Cretan quiver. Just 
as when the fierce Roman 
under arms takes his way under 
a heavy load, and pitches his 
camp against an enemy before 
he Is expected. But quite 
otherwise, where are the Scy- 
thian nations, and the water 
of Maeotis, and where the 
turbid Ister rolls the yellow 
sands; and where E.hodope 
returns, being extended under 
the middle of the pole. 



Armaque, Amyclseumque canem, Cressamque 
pharetram. 345 

Non secus ac patriis acer Romanus in armis 
Injusto sub fasce viam cum carpit, et hosti 
Ante expectatum positis stat in agmine castris. 
At non, qua Scythiae gentes, Maeotiaque unda, 
Turbidus et torquens flaventes Ister arenas : 350 
Quaque redit medium Rhodope porrecta sub 
axem. 



certainly the right reading: for it 
was customary with these shepherds 
to carry their gods about with 
them. Thus we find in the book 
of Genesis, that Rachel had stolen 
her father's gods, and carried them 
with her in her flight. 

345. Amycl(£umque canem.'] Amy- 
else was a city of Laconia, which 
region was famous for the best 
dogs. Thus in ver. 405. we have 
veloces Spartts catulos. Varro also 
mentions the Laconian dogs in the 
first place: "'Item videndum ut 
" boni seminii sint: itaque a re- 
'^ gionibus appellantur Lacones, 
" Epirotici, Sailentini." 

346. Non secus ac patriis, &c ] 
The Poet here compares the A- 
frican loaded with his arms at)d 
baggage to a Roman soldier on an 
expedition. We learn from Cicero, 
that the Romans carried not only 
their shields, swords, and helmets, 
but also provision for above half 
a month, utensils, and stakes : 
'' Nostri exercitus primum unde 
*' nomen habeant, vides: deinde 
*' qui labor, quantus agminis: ferre 
*' plus dimidiati mensis cibaria : 
" ferre, si quid ad usum velint : 
'' ferre vallum : nam scutum, gla- 
" dium, galeam, in onere nostri 
" milites non plus numerant, quam 
*' humeros, lacertos, manus." 

347- Injusto.'] It is used for very 



great : as iniquo pondere rastri, and 
labor improhus urget. 

Hosti.] Some read hostem. 

348. Agmifie.~\ Pierius tells us, 
that Arusianus Messus reai\s ordine. 

349. At non qua Scythice, &c.] 
From Africa, the Poet passes to 
Scythia, and describes the man- 
ners of the northern shepherds. 
The description of winter, in these 
cold climates, has been justly ad- 
mired as one of the finest pieces of 
poetry extant. 

Scythice genl€sr\ The ancients 
called all the northern nations Scy- 
thians. 

McEotiaque unda.] So I read with 
Heinsius and Masvicius. The com- 
mon reading is Mceoticaque unda. 
Pierius says it is Mceotia in the 
Roman, the Medicean, and most 
of the ancient manuscripts. I find 
Mceotia in the Cambridge and Bod- 
leian manuscripts. 

The lake Maeotis, or sea of Azof, 
lies beyond the Black Sea, and re- 
ceives the waters of the Tanais, now 
called Don, a river of Muscovy. 

350. Ister.] He seems to mean 
Thrace and the adjoining coun- 
tries ; for it is only the lower part 
of the Danube that the ancients 
called Ister j as was observed in 
the note on ver. 497. of the second 
Georgick. 

351. Quaque redit medium Rko- 



GEOHG. LIB. III. 



,^305 



Illic clausa tenent stabulis armenta; neque ullae 
Aut herbae campo apparent, aut arbore frondes; 
Sed jacet aggeribus niveis informis, et alto 
Terra gelu late, septemque assurgit in ulnas. 355 
Semper hyems, semper spirantes frigora cauri. 
Turn sol pallentes baud unquam discutit umbras; 



There they keep their herds 
shut up in stalls; and no herbs 
appear in the fields, no leaves 
on tlie trees; the earth Jies de- 
formed with heaps of snow, 
and deep frost, and rises seven 
ells in height. There is always 
winter, always north-west 
winds blowing cold. And 
(hen the sun hardly ever 
<iispels the pale shades ; 



dope porrecta sub axem.'] " Rhodope 
" is a mountain of Thrace, which 
'^ is extended eastward, and is there 
" joined with Haenius ; then part- 
" ing from it, it returns to the 
^' northward." Ru^us. 

353. Neque ulloe aut herbce campo 
apparent, aut arbore frondes.'] Thus 
also Ovid : 

Orbis in extremi jaceo desertus arenis : 
Fert ubi perpetuas obruta terra nives. 

Non ager hie pomum, non dulces edu- 
cat uvas: 
Non salices ripa, robora monte virent. 

355. Septemque assurgit in ulnas.'] 
It has been much controverted, 
what measure we are to assign to 
the ulna. Some will have it to be 
the measure from one long finger 
to the other, when both arms are 
extended, which we call an ell. 
Thus Dr. Trapp translates it: 

— — Ridg)'' heaps of snow 

Sev'n ells in height, deform the country 
round. 

Others are of opinion that it means 
no more than a cubit, or foot and 
half, being the measure from the 
elbow to the end of the long finger. 
This they confirm by the etymology 
of ulna from <»Agv>j. Thus Dryden 
translates it : 

The frozen earth lies buried there, below 
A hilly heap, sev'n cubits deep in snow: 

and before him. May : 

The hidden ground with hard frosts 

evermore, 
And snow seven cubites deepe is co- 

ver'd o'er. 



356. Cauri.] See the note on 
ver. 27S. 

357- Turn sol pollentes, &c.] This 
and the following lines are an imi- 
tation of Homer's description of the 
habitation of the Cimmerians: 

"Evict, Vi Ktfi,f££^iuv avt^uv ^yifJt.ts «"£ rroXa ri 
'VLi^t xai vs(piX*i xizci)\.Vf£/x.iv6t. ovhi fear 

avrov; 
^Hiktos <pa,i6u\i iTTiVi^Kirat axrinffenv, 

OuV O-TTOT av (TTl't^Yilfi TTgOi OU^OtVOV affTS' 

^osvra, 
Ovd' arav a-v^ WiyaTav ««"' el/^avohv 'Tf^a- 

T^xTrfirad. 
'AXX' It* )>v^ okoh riTetTai ^ukoTffi (h^orelcrt. 

There in a lonely land and gloomy cells, 
The dusky nation of Cimmeria dwells ; 
The sun ne'er views ih' uncomfortable 

seats, 
When radiant lie advances, or retreats : 
Unhappy race! rvhom endless night in- 

vadesy 
Clouds the dull air, and "wraps them round 

in shades. 

Mr. Pope. 

The habitation of the Cimmerians 
was near the Bosphorus, to the 
north-west, being part of the coun- 
try here designed by Virgil. It 
cannot be imagined, however, that 
Homer, in the passage just now 
cited, supposes that Ulysses sailed 
in one day from the island of Circe 
to the Bosphorus. It is more pro- 
bable that he means the people 
mentioned by Ephorus, as he is 
quoted by Strabo, who were said 
to have their habitation near the 
lake Avernus, under ground, where 
they lived all the day long, without 
seeing the sun, not coming up till 
after sun-set. They conducted those 
2 R 



306 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



neither when being carried bv 
bis horses he moniifs the sky; 
nor when he washes his head- 
long; chariot in the red waves 
of the ocean. Sudden crusts 
grow over the running river; 
and the water now sustains 
iron wheels on its back. 



Nec cum invectus equis altum petit aethera, nee 



cum 



Praecipitem Oceani rubro lavit aequore currum. 
Concrescunt subitas currenti in flumine crustae, 
Undaque jam tergo ferratos sustinet orbes, 361 



who came to consult the infernal 
oracle, being a sort of priests to the 
Manes. Ka) rovro ^a^lov IlXovrmio)i 

ivTeivB-x x'iyis-B-oii. fcui i'lTZTrXioy yz ol 
TT^oB-va-oifisvoi Kxi iXaa-a-oyAvei Tovg kx- 
ra^^B'oviovg dcc^uoya^, ovrav rav v^P'Aycv- 
fihav rci roicc.^6 hpzav, l^yoXaQrtXoray rov 

TOTTOV "E<p6^og2lro7g'K.if/.fAi- 

^loig TT^oc-oiicsiZv ^r,<riv uvTovg iv x.xrcc- 
yiioig olxiaig oi%.z7v, ug x.oiXov(riv u^ytX- 
Xecg, xccs ^lu rivav o^vyf/^tirav Ttra^ aX- 
X^Xevg Tg ^oiTUv, kxi Tovg ^ivdvg ug ro 
fixvnTov ^'i^tc-B-xi, TToXv ifTTO y^g i^pvyJi- 
vov. Q^y d aTTo f/^irocXXuxg kx] tZv uxv- 
tlvtfAZvav, KXi rov /ZxtriXzcog U'^odil^xvTog 
uvToTg G-vvTU^itg. Eivxi 21 ro7g Trig) to 
p^g))c-T>}gjoy &9-05 Trdrp^iov, fzyi^hx rov l^Xiov 
o^Zv, aXXa tjJ? vvKTog 'i^a Tro^ivicrB-ui 
rav ^xt7f4,urav. xxt otu rovro rov ttoit)- 
rtiv TTi^t oiiirm iiTriTv, ag a^oc 



359. Oceani ruhro oequore.~\ The 
waves of the ocean seem to be 
called red in this place, on account 
of the reflection of the setting sun. 
It is however very frequent amongst 
the poets, to call the sea purple. 
Thus also our Poet, in the fourth 
Georgick : 

Eridanus, quo non alius per pinguia culta 
In marc purpureum violentior influit 
amnis. 

Cicero, in a fragment of the second 
book of Academics, preserved by 
Nonius, describes the waves of the 
sea as growing pi)r{)le, when it is 
cut by oars: " Quid? mare nonne 
'' cseruleum ? at ejus unda, cum 



" est pulsa remis, purpurascil" In 
the fourth book, he mentions the 
sea as being purple on the blowing 
of Favonius: " Mare illud quidem, 
" nunc Favonio nascente, purpu- 
" reum videtur." 

360. Concrescunt subitcE currenti 
ia jilimine crusico.'} In is wanting 
in the King's manuscript. 

This is meant of the sudden 
freezing of the rivers in the north- 
ern countries. 

361. Undaque Jam tergo, &c2 
Ovid also speaks of the freezing of 
the Danube so hard, that carriages 
were drawn, where ships had 
sailed : 

Quid loquar, ut vincti concrescant frigore 
rivi, 
Deque lacu fragiles effodiantur aquae ? 
Ipse, papyrifero qui non angustior amne 

Miscetur vasto multa per ora freto, 
Casruleos ventis latices durantibus Ister 

Congelat, et tectis in mare serpit aquis. 
Quaque rales ierant, pedibus nunc itur : 
et undas 
Frigore concretas ungula pulsat equi. 
Perque novos pontes subter labentibus 
undis 
Ducunt Sarmatici barbara plaustra 
boves. 

Strabo mentions the freezing of the 
lake Mseotis so hard, that the lieu- 
tenant of Mithridates overcame the 
Barbarians in a battle fouiiht on 
the ice, in the very place where, in 
the following summer, he van- 
quished them in a sea fight: O/ cl 

TTciyoi TToc^ ecvToTg roiovrol rifig iicrn iTrt 
ru G-rofAxri rrig ?J^yyti t?j Maio^rioog, acr 
h %(>)ptcd, h bt "i^iiuafog rov MiS^^ioarov 
crTpxrriyo( liiKitiri t«v$ /3x^Zx^ov: itttto- 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



307 



Puppibus ilia prius patulis, nunc hospita plau- 'brl<ithiis,'Sri/nS1 

, . roafi for carriages; aiul brass 

stris. 



^raque dissiliunt vulgo, vestesque rigescunt 
Indutae, caeduntque securibus humida vina, 
Et totas solidam in glaciem vertere lacunae, 365 
Stiriaque impexis induruit horrida barbis. 



frequeiuly biir>ts in sunder, 
ilieir clotlies freeze on their 
backs, and they cleave tlie 
Jiqoid v.'ine with axes, and 
whi>le pooJs aie turned into 
solid ice, and rigid icicles 
haiden oil their uncombed 
beards. 



f^oi^cov iTTt TO) TTciyo), Tovg eiVTovg kutoc- 
vetvfAoiy^/i'ro'A Bi^ovg, ^^vB'ivrog rov Trciyov. 
363. JEraque dissiliunt.] Era- 
tosthenes, as he is quoted by Strabo, 
speaks of a copper or brazen vessel 
being placed in a teniple of .^scu- 
lapius, in memory of its having 
been bursten by frost : 'O 5' 'e^uto- 

c-mvvi<; xxi Tovri to <y^cif,cf^ec 7r^c(pz^iroti 
"TO iv ra AcTKMTriileo rm UoiVTixaTrstncdv , 

TTciyov. 

El Tig a-^ uvd^wTfuv (Mi ^iihrxi aix -Tfa^ 
hfuv 
TivsTcti, us rrivoi yvuru 'i^aiv v^^iuv' 
"Hh evp(^ avx^fif^a hov xaXov, aAA.' i-ri^n. 

Xiifiuvoi fAiyuXov 6ri)c h^tvi Sr^urios. 

164. Cceduntque securibus humida 
vina.'] This freezing of wine has 
by some been supposed to be only 
a poetical fiction. But Ovid, who 
was banished into these countries, 
mentions it : 

Udaqiie consistunt formam servantia 
testae, 
Vina : nee hausta meri, sed data frusta 
bibunt. 

Captain James, who, in his voyage 
to discover the north-west passage, 
wintered in Greenland in l631 and 
1652, says their vinegar, oil, and 
sack, which they had in small casks 
in the house, was all hard frozen. 
Captain Monck, a Dane, who win- 
tered there in I619 and 1620, re- 
lates that no wine or brandy was 
strong enough to be proof against 
the cold, but froze to the bottom, 
and that the vessels split in pieces. 



so that they cut the frozen liquor 
with hatchets, and melted it at the 
fire, before they could drink it. M. 
de Maupertuis, who, with some 
other Academicians, was sent by 
the king of France, in 1736, to 
measure a degree of the meridian 
under the arctic circle, says that 
brandy was the only liquor which 
could be kept sufficiently fluid for 
them to drink: ** Pendant un froid 
'' si grand, que la langue et les 
'* levres se geloient sur le champ 
*' contre la tasse, lorsqu'on vouloit 
" boire de I'eau-de-vie, qui ^toit 
" la seule liqueur qu'on piit tenir 
^' assez liquide pour la hoire, et ne 
^' s'en arrachoient que sanglantes." 
And a little afterwards he tells us, 
that the spirit of wine froze in 
their thermometers. 

The epithet humida does not 
seem to be an idle epithet here, as 
many have imagined. The Poet 
uses it to express the great severity 
of the cold ; that even wine, w^hich 
above all other liquors preserves 
its fluidity in the coldest weather 
in other countries, is so hard frozen 
in these northern regions, as to 
require to be cut with hatchets, 
Ovid also, in the verses quoted at 
the beginning of this note, uses the 
epithet iida, on the same occasion. 

365. Et totce sotidam in glaciem.'] 
" In the Roman manuscript it is 
" Fa totce in solidam : but solidam 
" in glaciem is much more elegant." 

PlERIUS. 

366. Stiriaque impexis ivduruii 
horrida harbis.] Thus Ovid : 

2 R 2 



308 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



In (he mean while it snows 
incessantly over all the air: 
the cattle perish: the lar^e 
bodies of oxen stand covered 
with frost: ;ind wimle herds 
of deer lie benumbed under an 
unusual weight, and scarce ihe 
tips of their horns appear. 
'J hese are not hunted with 
dogs, or ensnared with toils, 
or affrigiited with crimson 
feathers: but they are stabbed 
directl5, whilst they vainly 
strive to move the opposing 
hill, and make a loud braying, 
and are carried home with a 
joyful noise. The inhabitants 
themselves live in secure rest 
in caves which they have 
digged deep in the ground ; 
and roll whole oaks and elms 
to the hearth, and set them 
on tire. Here they spend the 
night in sport. 



Interea toto non secius aere niiigit ; 
Intereunt pecudes, stant circumfusa pruinis 
Corpora magna bourn; confertoque agmine cervi 
Torpent mole nova, et sumrais vix cornibus ex- 
tant. 370 
Hos non imraissis canibus, non cassibus ullis 
Puniceasve agitant pavidos formidine pennae : 
Sed frustra oppositum trudentes pectore montem 
Comminus obtruncant ferro, graviterque ru- 

dentes 
Casdunt, et magno laeti clamore reportant. 375 
Ipsi in defossis specubus secura sub alta 
Otia agunt terra, congestaque robora, totasque 
Advolvere focis ulmos, ignique dedere. 
Hie noctem ludo ducunt, et pocula laeti 



Ssepe sonant moti^lacie pendente capilli, 
Et nitet inducto Candida barba gelu. 

367. ^ere.] In one of the Arun- 
delian nnanuscripts it is cequore. 

369. Confertoque agmine cervi.^ 
Pierius says it is confecto in the 
Roman manuscript. It is conserto 
in the King's manuscript. 

The Poet mentions herds of 
deer, because those animals do not 
live solitary, but in herds. 

371. Non cassibus.'] ]n one of 
the Arundelian manuscripts it is 
nee cassibus. 

372. Puniceceve agitant pavidos 
formidine pennce.'] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is puniceaque. 
In the King's manuscript it is pe- 
cudes instead of pavidos. 

It was the custom to hang up 
coloured feathers on lines, to scare 
the deer into the toils. 

373. Sed frustra.'] Pierius says 
it is et frustra in the Roman manu- 
script. 

376. In defossis specubus.] Pom- 
ponius Mela, speaking of the Sar- 
matse, says they dig holes in the 



earth for their habitations, to avoid 
the severity of winter: '' Sarmatae 
"^ auri et argenti, maximarum pes- 
" tium, ignari, vice rerum com- 
" mercia exercent : atque ob saeva 
'' hyemis admodum assiduae, de- 
*' mersis in humum sedibus, specus 
" aut suffossa habitant, totum brac- 
" cati corpus ; et nisi qua vident, 
" etiam ora vestiti." And Tacitus 
also says the Germans used to 
make caves to defend them from 
the severity of winter, and conceal 
their corn : " Solent et subterra- 
" neos specus aperire, eosque insu- 
" per multo fimo onerant, suffu- 
" gium hyemi, et receptaculum 
" frugibus." 

377. Totasque.] Pierius says que 
is left out in many ancient manu- 
scripts. I find the same reading 
in the King's, the Bodleian, and in 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, 
and in some of the old printed 
editions. 

379. Pocula Iceti fermento atqne 
acidis imitantur vitea sorbis.] Ruaus 
interprets this passage to mean beer 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



309 



Fermento atque acidis imitantur vitea sorbis. 380 



and imilale the juice of the 
grape with barm and sour ser- 
vices. 



and cyder. Fermentum, he says, sig- 
nifies the fermentation of barley, 
wheat, or oats ; when by a certain 
medicated heat the grain swells, 
and grows acid, which are the two 
effects of fermentation -, which is 
therefore named from /en;eo, as it 
were fervirnenium : and thus beer 
is made. The other liquor is ex- 
pressed from acid berries and fruits 
squeezed, such as apples, pears, 
cornels, services : and is called 
cyder, Sec. Dr. Trapp interprets 
fermentum yest or barm, which, he 
thinks, is put for the liquor which 
it makes. But \f fermentum means 
what we call yest or barm, I 
should rather think the Poet speaks 
only of one sort of liquor, made 
of the juice of services, fermented 
with yest : not of two sorts, as 
Dr. Trapp translates this passage j 

And heer and cj/der quaff, instead of 
wine. 

Yest alone will not make any pota- 
ble liquor. But let us see what the 
ancients did really mean by the 
word fermentum. We shall find 
this in Pliny, who plainly enough 
describes it to be what we call 
leaven : for he says it is made of 
dough, kept till it grows sour: 
" Nunc fermentum fit ex ipsa 
*' farina quae subigitur, prius quam 
** addatur sal, ad pultis modum 
" decocta, et relicta donee acescat." 
I must acknowledge, that it is 
somewhat difficult to conceive what 
sort of liquor could be made of 
this leaven. Perhaps instead of 
fermento, we ought to read frw 
mento, which will remove all the 
difficulty. It is certain that not 
only the northern people, but other 
nations also, used drink made of 
corn. Thus Pliny ascribes this 



liquor to the western people, and 
to i,he Egyptians: '^ Est et Occi- 
*' dentis populis sua ebrietas, fruge 
" madida : pluribus modis per Gal- 
** lias Hispaniasque nominibus aliis, 
" sed ratione eadem. Hispanise 
'' jam et vetustatem ferre ea genera 
" docuerunt. ^gyptus quoque e 
" fruge sibi potus similes excogi- 
" tavit : nullaque in parte mundi 
'• cessat ebrietas." The same au- 
thor tells us that various liquors 
are made of corn, in Egypt, Spain, 
and Gaul, under different names: 
'* Et frugum quidem haec sunt in 
" usu medico. Ex iisdem fiunt et 
'^ potus, zythum in ^gypto, caelia 
*' et caeria in Hispania, cervisia in 
*' Gallia, aliisque provinciis." Ta- 
citus, in his book De Moribus Ger- 
manorum, says expressly, that the 
common drink of that people was 
made of corn, corrupted into a 
resemblance of wine: " Potui hu- 
" mor ex hordeo aut frumenio, in 
" quandam similitudinem vini cor- 
" ruptus." Strabo mentions, drink 
being made of corn and honey in 
Thule: Hoe.^ oig 21 o-Tto? kcci jWSAt y/y- 

As for the drink made of ser- 
vices, I do not find it mentioned by 
any Roman writer, except Palla- 
dius, who speaks of it only by 
hearsay : " Ex sorbis n^aturis, sicut 
'^ ex pyris, vinum fieri traditur et 
" acetum." We find in the same 
author, that in his time wines 
were made of several sorts of fruit : 
" Hoc mense [Octobri] omnia, quae 
*' locis suis leguntur, ex pomis vina 
'' conficies." He mentions perry, 
or the wine made of pears, and 
describes the manner of making it; 
" Vinum de pyris Jfit, si contusa, 
" et sacco rarissimo eondita pon- 
" deribus comprimantur, aut pree- 



310 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



?r,nin.'i1,o"iKi'Sder"the Talis Hyperboreo septem subjecta trioni, 

north pole, and are pierced by ^~ ^^ . -r» • i t 

the Riphaean east wiud : Gens eiirsena virum Uiphseo tunditur euro, 



*' lo." He speaks also of cyder : 
*' Vinum et acetum fit ex malis, 
*' sicut ex pyris ante prsecepi." 

381. Hyperboreo.'] See the note 
on ver. I96. 

Septem subjecta trio7ii.] This Tme- 
sis, as the grammarians call it, or 
division of septemtrio into two 
words, is not unfrequent. Thus 
Ovid: 

Scythiarn, sepiemque trionem 

Horrifer invasit Boreas : 

And 

Gurgite caeruleo septem prohibete triones: 
And 



Interque triones 



Flexerat oblique plaustrum temone 
Bootes. 

Nay we often find triones without 
septem. Thus our Poet in the first 
,and third iEneids: 

Arcturum pluviasque Hyadas, geminos- 
que triones. 

Thus also Ovid : 

Turn primum radiis gelid i caluere trio- 
nes: 

— — ^— Interque triones 

Flexerat obliquo plaustrum temone 
Bootes. 

The triones or septem triones are the 
two northern constellations, com- 
monly known by the names of the 
greater and lesser bear, in each of 
which are seven stars placed nearly 
in the same order, and which were 
fancied by the ancients to repre- 
sent a wa2:g;on, and were therefore 
called oifiotlxi and plaustra : whence 
we also call the seven stars in the 
rump and tail of the great bear 
Charles's wain. ^Elius and Varro, 
as they are quoted by Aulus Gel- 
lius, tell us, that triones is as it 



were terriones, and was a name by 
which the old husbandmen called 
a team of oxen : " Sed ego quidem 
"^ cum L. ^lio et M. Varrone sen- 
" tio, qui triones rustico certo vo- 
" cabulo boves appellatos scribunt, 
" quasi quosdam terriones, hoc est 
" arandae colendaeque terra? idoneos. 
" Itaque hoc sidus, quod a figura 
'' posituraque ipsa, quia simile 
" plaustri videtur, antiqui Graeco- 
" rum otfix^xv dixerunt, nostri quo- 
** que veteres a bubus junctis sep- 
" tentriones appellarunt, id est, a 
" septem stellis, ex quibus quasi 
" juncti triones figurantur." I be- 
lieve that Virgil, by using trioni in 
the singular number, and adding 
the epithet Hyperboreo, means the 
lesser bear, under which are situ- 
ated those who live within the 
arctic circle. Dr. Trapp' seems to 
understand our Poet in this sense: 

Such is th' unbroken race of men, who 

live 
Beneath the pole. 

Dryden has introduced the Dutch 
in this place, and bestowed the epi- 
thet unwarlihe upon them, which 
is not in the least countenanced ei- 
ther by history, or the words of his 
author : 

Such are the cold Ryphean race, and 

such 
The savage Scythian, and un-warlike 

Dutch. 

382. Riph(Fo tunditur euro.'J It 
has been already observed, that the 
Riphaean hills are probably that 
great ridge of mountains which di- 
vides Lapland from the northern 
part of Muscovy, 

Why the poet mentions the east 
wind in this place, as blowing on 
the Hyperboreans from the Riphas- 



GEORG. LIB. IIL 



311 



Et pecudum fulvis velatur corpora setis : 
Si tibi Lanicium curae ; primum aspera sylya, 
Lappaeque tribulique absint : fuge pabula 
laeta ; 385 



and have their bodies covered 
with the yellow spoils of 
beasts. If wool is your care; 
in the first place avoid prickly 
bushes, and burrs, and cal- 



trops ; 
luies; 



and shun the tat pas- 



an hills, seems not very clear. It 
has already been observed, that 
those people were supposed to dwell 
on the north side of those hills, 
which was imagined to be even be- 
yond the rising of the north wind. 
Strabo seems to treat the Riphsean 
hills themselves as a fabulous in- 
vention : Aia ^l Tiiv ayvoiocv rav tottoj* 
rovrm, cl ra, "^ViTTxTcc ogjj x,oii tov^ 'Ytts^- 
Zopu'ovg fAvSoTTOioZvTig, Xoyov yi Javroii. 

Pliny speaks of them as joining to 
Taurus: ''Taurus mons ab Eois 
*' veniens littoribus, Chelidonio pro- 
" montorio disterminat. Immen- 
*' sus ipse^et innumerarum gentium 
" arbiter dextero latere septentrio- 
*' nalis, ubi primum ab Indico mari 
" exurgit, laevo meridianus, et ad 
" occasum tendens : mediamque 
" dislrahens Asiam, nisi opprimenti 
" terras occurrerent maria. Resi- 
" lit ergo ad septentriones, flexus- 
" que iuimensum iter quaerit, velut 
^' de industria rerum natura s'ubinde 
'' sequora opponente, hinc Phoeni- 
" cium, hinc Ponticum, illinc Cas- 
*' pium et Hyrcanium, contraque 
" Macoticum lacum, Torquetur ita- 
" que collisus inter haec claustra^ et 
" tamen victor, flexuosus evadit 
*' usque ad cognata Riphceorum mon- 
"' tium juga, numerosis nomlnibus 
*' et novis quacunque incedit insig- 
*' nis." And in another place he 
says, *' Subjicitur Ponti regie Col- 
" chica, in qua juga Caucasi ad 
'' Riphceos monies torquentur, ut 
" dictum est, altero latere in Eu- 
" xinum et Maeotin devexa, altero 
" in Caspiumet Hyrcanium mare." 
383. Pecudum fulvis velatur cor- 
pora setis.'] I read velatur with Hein- 



sius and Masvicius : the common 
reading is velaniur. Pierius says it 
is velatur in the Roman manuscript, 
and in another of great antiquity, 
where n has been interlined by 
some other hand. 

Ovid mentions the Getae as being 
clothed with skins ; 

Hie rnihi Cimmerio bis lertia dncitur 
astas 
Littore pellitos inter agenda Getas. 

Tacitus also, speaking of the north- 
ern people, says, " Gerunt et fe- 
" rarum pelles, proximi ripse negli- 
" genter, ulteriores exqulsitius, ut 
" quibus nullus per commercia cul- 
" tus." 

384. Si tibi, &c.] The poet here 
gives directions about taking care 
of the wool: he observes, that 
prickly places and fat pastures are 
to be avoided ; and then gives di- 
rections about the choice of the 
sheep, and particularly of the rams. 

Si.] It is sit in the old Nuren- 
berg edition. 

Aspera sylval] All prickly bushes 
are injurious to sheep, by rending 
their fine wool, and wounding their 
flesh, which he mentions soon after 
amongst their diseases: " secue- 
" runt corpora vepres." 

385. Lappceque tribulique.^ See 
the note on book i. ver. 153. 

Fuge pabula Iceta.] The wool is 
thought not to be so good, if the 
cattle are very fat. Columella men- 
tions the hungry lands about Parma 
and Modena, as feeding the most 
valuable sheep ; " Nunc Gallicae 
" pretiosiores habentur, earumque 
" praecipue Altinates : item qu3& 



312 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



?o"?Jr^ok'^hr'^f,fcK^ Continuoque greges villis lege moUibus albos. 

white with sott wool. Nay, _,, ... ,. -, . 

though the ram shonM be of iUum auteiii, Quamvis aocs sit candidus ipse, 

the purest white, yet it his ' ^ » ' 

l«ofsrpaute"rSct"him, }o'r Nigra subest udo tantum cui lingua palato, 

fear he should suliy the fleece _, . . t • ^ n iv r»oi-k 

Scots'-* °*^P""= ''''^'' '^"^'"^ Kejice, ne maculis miuscet vellera pulJis 389 



*' circa Parmam et Mutinam macris 
" stabulantur campis." 

386. Continuo.'] See the note on 
ver. 75. 

Greges villis lege mollibus albos.'] 
Varro mentions the softness of the 
wool, as essential in a good sheep : 
'* De forma, ovem esse oportet cor- 
" pore amplo, quae lana raulta sit 
'' et mollis viilis altis et densis toto 
'^ corpore, maxime circum cervicem 
/* et coUum, ventrem quoque ut 
" habeat pilosum, itaque quae id 
*' non haberent, majores nostri api- 
*' cas appellabant, et rejiclebant." 
Columella says the whitest are most 
esteemed ; '^ Color albus cum sit 
'^ optlmus, turn etiam est utilissi- 
**^ mus, quod ex eo plurimi fiunt, 
'' neque hie ex alio." Palladius 
also observes, that regard is ,to be 
had to the softness of the wool : 
'' Eligenda est vasti corporis, et 
** prolixi, velleris, ac moUissimi, la- 
" nosi, et magni uteri." 

388. Nigra subest udo tantum cui 
lingua palate,'] Aristotle affirms, 
that the lambs will be white, or 
black, or red, according to the co- 
lour of the veins under the tonaue 
of the ram : Aivy,a Oi ra g«yov<sj ymroii 

KXl f/AXsilVOt, iOiV VTTO T>] TOV K^lOV yXaTT*\ 

uh, eav MvKsti, f^iXeiivoc ot, Ictv fAiXxtvxi. 
lav ^l uf^ipon^xi, xu(pori^ei. ttv^os, Tz, 
loiv TTvfi^xL Varro also, from whom 
Virgil took this observation, gives 
a caution to observe if the tongue 
of a ram be black, or speckled, be- 
cause the lambs will be of the same 
colour: "^ Animadvertendum quo- 
*' que linguane nigra, aut varia sit, 
" quod fere qui ea habent, nigros 



" autvarios, procreantagnos." Co- 
lumella, who quotes our poet on 
this occasion, enlarges on what he 
has said. He observes, that it is 
not enough for the fleece of a ram 
to be white, but his palate and 
tongue must be white also. For if 
these parts of the body are dark or 
spotted, the lambs will be dark and 
spotted too. He adds, that it is the 
same with black and red rams ; and 
that if any regard is had to the 
wool, the marks of the male parent 
are chiefly to be observed : *' Itaque 
" non solum ea ratio est probandi 
*' arietis, si vellere candido vestitur, 
'' sed etiam si palatum, atque lin- 
*^ gua concolor lana^ est. Nam cum 
" hae corporis partes nigrae aut ma- 
" culosae sunt, pullavel etiam varia 
'' nascitur proles. Idque inter cae- 
'■ tera eximietalibus numeris signi- 
" ficavit idem, qui supra: Ilium 

" autem, quamvis aries, &c 

*' Una eademque ratio est in ery- 
" thrseis, et nigrls arietibus, quo- 
^' rum similiter, utjam dixi, neutra 
" pars esse debet discolor lanse, 
'' multoque minus ipsa universitas 
" tergoris maculis variet. Ideo 
'" nisi lanatasoves eminon oportet, 
" quo melius unitas coloris appa- 
''reat: quae nisi praecipua est in 
'' arietibus, paternae notae plerum- 
*' que natis inhaerent." Palladius 
also affirms, that if the tongue of 
the ram is spotted, the same de- 
fect will appear in his offspring : 
" In quibus non solum corporis 
" candor considerandus est, sed 
" etiam lingua, quae si maculis fus- 
" cabitur, varietatem reddit in so- 
" bole." 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



313 



Nascentum : plenoque alium circumspice 
campo. 390 

Munere sic niveo lanae, si credere dignum est, 
Pan deus Arcadiae captam te, Luna, fefellit, 
In nemora alta vocans : nee tu aspernata vo- 

cantem. 
At cui lactis amor, cytisos, lotosque frequentes 
Ipse manu, salsasque ferat praesepibus herbas. 



and search all over the plain 
for another. Thus Pan tlie 
god of Arcadia, if we may 
give credit to the story, de- 
ceived thee, O Moon, being 
captivated with a snowy oflfer- 
ing of wool ; nor did you de- 
spise his invitation to come 
into the lofty woods. Bat 
those who desire to have 
milk, must give them with 
their own hands plenty of 
cytisus and water-lilies, and 
lay salt herbs in their cribs. 



390. Nascentum.] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is nascentis. 

Pleno.'] In the King's manuscript 
it is piano. 

391. Munere sic niveo, &c.] This 
and the following line are trans- 
posed, in both Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts. 

Servius accuses Virgil of having 
changed the story, for it was not 
Pan, but Endymion, who was said 
to be beloved by the Moon, on ac- 
count of his milk white sheep, with 
which lie bribed her to his embraces. 
But I do not remember to have 
read in any of the ancient authors, 
that Endymion had any occasion to 
take pains to seduce the Moon. On 
the contrary, she fell in love with 
him, as he lay asleep on the moun- 
tain Latmos, or, as Cicero relates 
the fable, threw him into a sleep on 
purpose that she might have that 
opportunity of enjoying him : •' En- 
'* dymion vero, si fabulas audire 
" volumus, nescio quando inLatmo 
" obdormivit, qui est mons Cariae, 
'^ nondumopinorexperrectus. Num 
*' igitur eum curare censes, cum 
*' Luna laboret, a qua consopiius pu- 
" tatur ut eum dormientem osculare- 
*' tur ?" This cannot therefore be 
the fable, to which Virgil alludes. 
Macrobius affirms, that Virgil took 
this fable of Pan and the Moon 
from the Georgicks of Nicander, 
which are now lost. The fable it- 
self is variously related. Probus 



tells us, that Pan being in love with 
the Moon offered her the choice of 
any part of his flock: that she 
choosing the whitest, was deceived, 
because they were the worst sheep. 
But surely, if the whitest sheep 
were the worst in the flock, it would 
not have answered Virgil's purpose 
to have alluded to the fable. I 
rather believe the fable, which our 
poet meant, was as Philargyrius 
and some others have related itj 
that Pan changed himself into a 
ram as white as snow, by vi^hich 
the Moon was deceived, as Europa 
was by Jupiter, in the form of a 
white bull. 

394*. At cui lactis amor, &c.] This 
paragraph informs us, that those 
who feed sheep for the sake of 
their milk, must afford them great 
plenty of proper nourishment. 

Cytisum.'] See the note on book 
ii. ver. 431. 

Lotos.] I have ventured to trans- 
late this water-lilies on the credit of 
Prosper Alpinus. See the note on 
book ii. ver. 84. The great white 
water lily grows in rivers and deep 
ditches. 

SQ5. Ipse.] Pierius says it is ille 
in the Roman and Medicean ma- 
nuscripts, but he justly prefers ipse, 
as being more erophatical. I find 
ille in the King's and both the 
Arundelian manuscripts, and some 
of the oldest printed editions. 

Salsasque ferat prcesepibus herbas.'] 
2 s 



314 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



This makes them fonder of 
drinkine, and more distends 
their udders, and gives an 
obscure relish of salt to their 
raiik. Many restrain the kids 
from their dams as soon as 
they are grown big, and fasten 
muzzles with iron spikes 
about their mouths. What 
they have milked at sun-rising 
and in the day time, they 
press at night; but what they 
milk in the night and at sun- 
setting, the shepherd carries 
at day-break in baskets to 
the town, or else they mix it 
with a small quantity of salt, 
and lay it up for winter. Nor 
let your care of. dogs be the 
last; but 



Hinc et amant fluvios magis, et magis ubera ten- 
dunt, 396 

Et salis occultum referunt in lacte saporem. 

Multi jam excretos prohibent a matribus hoedos, 

Primaque ferratis praefigunt ora capistris. 

Quod surgente die mulsere, horisque diumis, 

Nocte premunt ; quod jam tenebris et sole ca- 
dente, 401 

Sub lucem exportans calathis adit oppida pastor ; 

Aut parco sale contingunt, hyemique reponunt. 

Nee tibi cura canum f uerit postrema ; sed una 



Columella does not approve the 
giving of marsh herbs to sheep that 
are in health -, he recommends salt 
to be given them when they are 
sickj and refuse their food and 
drink. " Jucundissimas herbas esse, 
'' quae aratro proscissis arvis nas- 
''cantur: deinde quae pratis iili- 
'^ gine carentibus : palustres, syl- 
*' vestresque minirae idoneas ha- 
'^beri; nee tamen ulla sunt tam 
" blanda pabula, aut etiam pascua^ 
" quorum gratia non exolescat usu 
*' continuo, nisi pecudum fastidio 
'^ pastor occurrerit praebito sale, 
'' quod velut ad pabuli condimen- 
'^ tum per aestatem canalibus lig- 
'^ neis impositum cum e pastu re- 
" dierint oves, lambunt, atque eo 
" sapore cupidinem bibendi, pas- 
" cendique concipiunt." 

398. Jam,] It is etia7n in the 
King's and in both the Arundelian 
manuscripts. 

399- Ferratis capistris.'] These 
muzzles, of which the poet speaks, 
are not such as confine the mouth 
of the lamb or kid, for then it could 
not eat. They are iron spikes fast- 
ened about the snout, which prick 
the dam, if she offers to let her 
young one suck. 

402. Cal(^this.] Servius interprets 



calathis brazen vessels, in which 
they used to carry milk and new 
cheese to town. But it was cer- 
tainly a vessel not at all fit to carry 
milk : for it was made on purpose 
for the whey to run through and 
leave the curd behind, in order to 
make cheese, as we find it de- 
scribed by Columella : " Nee tamen 
'^ admovenda est flammis, ut qui- 
" busdam placet, sed baud procul 
" igne constituenda, et confestim 
" cum concrevit, liquor in fiscellas, 
** aut in calathos, vel formas trans- 
'^ ferendus est. Nam maxime re- 
" fert primo quoque tempore serum 
" percolari, et a concreta materia 
" separari." 

404. Nee tibi cura canum, &c.] 
Immediately after sheep and goats, 
the Poet makes mention of dogs ; 
some of which are necessary to de- 
fend the folds against robbers and 
wolves, and others are of service in 
hunting. 

Hesiod also advises us to take 
good care to have our dogs well 
fed, lest the man that sleeps by day 
should deprive us of our goods : 

Ka) xvfo, xao^u^c^ovTa xeuiTi. fth <pi>^t9 

trireu. 
M>) {Tare <r' hfti^ozotrei dtrie dico Xi^f^^ 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



315 



Veloces Spartae catulos, acrcmque Molossum 
Pasce sero pingui : nunquam custodibus illis 
Nocturnum stabulis furem, incursusque lupo- 
rum, 407 

Aut impacatos a tergo horrebis Iberos. 



feed with faltening whey the 
swift hounds of Sparta, and 
the fierce mastiff of Molossia; 
trusting to those guards you 
need never to fear the nightly 
robber in your fold, nor the 
incursions of wolves, nor the 
restless Spaniards coming upon 
you by stealth. 



405. Veloces Sparta catulos.'] The 
dogs of Sparta were famous; thus 
we have seen already Taygetique 
canes and Amyclceuntque canem. I 
take these Spartan dogs to be what 
we call hounds, for we find they 
were used in hunting; and Aristo- 
tle says they have long snouts, and 
a very quick scent : Aio oa-6>y ei ^v- 

aim, 0(7-(p^xv7tKd. We may observe 
also that Aristotle calls them xwi^tx, 
and Virgil catuli, whence we may 
judge that they were a smaller sort 
of dogs, than those which were 
used for the defence of the folds. 

Acremque Molossum.'] This dog 
has its name from Molossia, a city 
of Epirus. I take it to be that sort 
which we call a mastifF. Aristotle 
says there are two sorts of Molos- 
sian dogs : that, which is used for 
hunting, is not different from the 
common sort; but that, which is 
used by the shepherds, is large, and 
fierce against wild beasts : To S' Iv 
Tvi MoXoTTKZ yzvog rm Kvvav, to f^lv %- 

^iVTl>C6V Ol/dh dlX(Pi^Si -TT^O^ TO TTCiQ^oi, Tolg 

uXXotg. TO o XKoXovdov Tolg TTpoQeiroig rS 
(iiy'lhi, %»{ Tjj ccv^^Iu TJj TT^og tk ^jjg/as. 

There is frequent mention of the 
loud barking of these dogs. Thus 
Lucretius : 

Irritata canum cum primum magna Mo- 
lossum 

Mollia ricta fremunt duros nudantia 
dentes ; 

And Horace : 

Simul domus alta Molossis 

Person uit canibus. 

Columella speaks of two sorts of 



dogs, one to guard the house, and 
the other to defend the folds. That 
which he recommends for the house, 
seems to be the mastiff, or molossus. 
He says it should be of the largest 
size, should bark deep and loud, 
that he may terrify the thieves with 
his voice, as well as with his look, 
nay and sometimes without being 
seen affright them with a horrid 
growling : ^' Villsecustos eligendus 
" est amplissimi corporis, vasti la- 
*' tratus, canorique, ut prius auditu 
*' maleficum, deinde etiam con- 
*' spectu terreat, et tamen nonnun- 
'' quam ne visus quidem horribili 
'' fremitu suo fuget insidiantem." 

408. Iberos.] The Iberi have by 
some been supposed to be a people 
of that name who anciently dwelt 
in Pontus. But we find in Pliny 
that these Iberians were some of 
the people who settled in Spain: 
*' In universam HispaniamM. Var- 
" ro pervenisse Iberos et Persas, et 
" Phoenicas, Celtasque et Poenos 
" tradit." The same author soon 
after informs us, that all Spain was 
called Iberia from the river Iberus: 
*' Iberus amnis navigabili cora- 
" mercio dives, ortus in Cantabris 
" haud procul oppido, Juliobrica, 
'' ccccl. M. pass, fluens, navium per 
'' cclx. M. a Varia oppido capax, 
" quern propter universam Hispa- 
" niam Graeci appellavere Iberiam." 
The Iberus is now called the Ebro, 
and has the city of Saragossa on its 
banks. The Spaniards were so fa- 
mous for their robberies, that the 
Poet makes use of their name, in 
this place, for robbers in general. 

■^ s 2 



316 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



With dogs you will ofteu 
coarse the timorous wild 
asses, with dogs you will hunt 
the hare and hind. Often- 
times also with the barking 
of your dogs yon will rouse 
the wild boar from his muddy 
habitations: and with their 
noise drive the vast stag over 
the lofty mountains into the 
toils. Learn also to burn the 
odorous cedar in your folds. 



Saepe etiam cursu timidos agitabis onagros, 
El canibus leporem, canibus venabere damas. 
Ssepe volutabris pulsos sylvestribus apros 411 
Latratu turbabis agens, montesque per altos 
Ingentem clamore premes ad retia cervum. 
Disce et odoratam stabulis accendere cedrum. 



It cannot be supposed^, that he 
means literally the Spaniards them- 
selves 'j for those people were too 
far removed from Italy, to be able 
to come by night to rob their sheep- 
folds. La Cerda has taken much 
pains to justify his countrymen, by 
shewing that it was anciently very 
glorious to live by rapine. 

409. Timidos.'] It is tumidos in 
one of the Aruhdelian manuscripts. 

Onagros.'] The Onager or wild 
ass is an animal of Syria, frequent 
about Aleppo and Apamia. The 
skin of it is very hard, and is 
dressed into that sort of knotty 
leather, which we call chagrin, 
Varro says the wild asses are very 
numerous in Phrygiaand Lycaonia, 
and are easily made tame : " Unum 
'' ferum, quos vocant Onagros, in 
'^ Phrygia et Lycaonia sunt gfeges 

*' multi Adseminationem 

" onagrus idotieus, quod e fero fit 
'' mansuetus facile, et e mansueto 
'' ferus nunquam." We find that 
their flesh was in great esteem 
amongst the ancients. Pliny men- 
tions it as a singular taste in Mae- 
cenas, that he preferred the colts of 
the tame ass to those of the wild 
one : " Pullos earum epulari Mae- 
*' cenas instituit, multum eo tem- 
" pore praelatos onagris: post eum 
'^ interiit autoritas saporis." The 
same author speaks of the wild 
asses of Africa, as excelling all 
others in taste : " Onagri in Phry- 
*' gia et Lycaonia prsecipui. Puliis 
"^ eorum ceu prsc'stantibus sapore, 
^' Africa gloriatur, quos lalisiones 



" appellant.'* Virgil has been cen- 
sured for mentioning the hunting 
of these animals, of which there 
were none in Italy. Varro indeed 
seems to speak as if there was no 
sort of asses in Italy except the 
tame: '^ Alterum mansuetum, ut 
*' sunt in Italia omnes.'* But, as 
we have just now been told that 
Maecenas preferred the flesh of the 
tame ass to that of the wild one, 
we may conclude, that the wild 
asses were in Italy in Virgil's 
time. 

41 1 . Volutabris.] This word pro- 
perly signifies the muddy places in 
which the swine delight to roll. 
Thus Varro : *' Admissuras cum fa- 
" ciunt,prodiguntinlutosos linitcs, 
*' ac lustra, ut volutentur in luto, 
" quae est illorum requies, ut la- 
" vatio hominis." 

414. Disce et odoratam.] The 
Poet now proceeds to shew the in- 
juries to which cattle are subject : 
and begins with a beautiful account 
of serpents. 

Odoratam cedrum.] I have ob- 
served already, in the note on book 
ii. ver. 433. that the cedar of the 
Greek and Roman writers is not 
the cedar of Lebanon, but a sort of 
Juniper. Thus May translates this 
passage : 

But learne to burne within thy sheltering 

roomes 
Sweet Juniper. 

This tree was accounted good to 
drive away serpents with its smoke, 
Palladius says that serpents are 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



317 



Galbaneoque agitare graves nidore chelydros. 
Saepe sub immotis praesepibus aut mala tactu 



and to drive away the stink- 
ing chelydri with the strong 
smell of galbaniun. Often 
under the neglected mangers 
either the 



driven away by burning cedar, or 
galbanum, or women's hair, or 
harts' horns: " Propter serpentes, 
'' qui plerumque sub praesepibus 
" latent, cedrum, vel galbanum, 
" vel mulieris capillos, aut cervina 
" cornua frequenter uramus." 

415. Galbaneo nidore.'] Galbanum 
is the concreted juice of a plant 
called Ferula. It is probably taken 
from more than one species. Her- 
man, in his Paradisus Batavus, has 
given us a figure and description of 
a plant, under the name of Ferula 
Africana Galbanifera, ligustici foliis 
et facie, which being wounded 
yields a juice in all respects agree- 
ing with the Galbanum. " Acredine 
" aromatica sat penetranti gustan- 
" tium linguam perstringit. Sau- 
" ciata lac fundit viscidum sed di- 
*' lutius et paucum, in lachrymam 
" Galbano omnibus notis respon- 
*' dentem concrescens. E trimuli 
" quadrimulive caulis geniculis sua 
" sponte nonnunquam emanat." 
Dioscorides says it is the juice of a 
sort of Ferula, growing in Syria, 
that it has a strong smell, and 
drives away serpents with its fume; 
XxXQcivn OTTO? \<rrh Not^^>j»«$ h St^^/es 

ymof^ivov o(r(*v> (ict^sTot 

h^iec Tg 6vf£ici>fivjv> dicoKii. Pliny has 
almost the same words : " Dat et 
" Galbanum Syria in eodem Amano 
" monte e ferula .... Si nee rum si 
" uratur, fugat nidore serpentes." 
Columella also recommends the 
smoke of Galbanum, to drive away 
serpents: " Cavendumque ne a ser- 
" pentibus adflentur, quarum odor 
" tarn pestilens est, ut interimat 
*' universos : id vitatur saepius in- 
" censo cornu cervino, vel galbano 
" vel muliebri capillo; quorum om- 



" nium fere nidoribus praedicta 
'' pestis submovetur." 

Graves.] Servius reads gravi, 
making it agree with galbaneo ni- 
dore ; which is not amiss : for the 
smell of galbanum is very strong. 
But the ancient manuscripts have 
graves, which is generally admitted 
by the editors. And indeed this is 
a proper epithet for the chelydri, 
on account of their oiFensive smell, 
as will be seen in the next note. 

Chelydros.] In the King's manu- 
script it is chelindros. 

S. Isidore makes the chelydros 
and chersydros to be the same : 
" Chelydros serpens, qui et chersy- 
" dros dicitur, qui et in aquiSvCt in 
" terris moratur." But the chersy^ 
dros is described by our Poet ten 
lines below. Lucan also makes 
the chersydrus and chehjdrus two 
different sorts of serpents ; 

Natus et ambiguje coleret qui Syrtidos 
arva 

Chersydros, tractique via fumante che- 
lydri. 

The Chelydrus seems to be that sort 
of serpent, of which we find fre- 
quent mention among the Greek 
writers under the name of '^^vUo^. 
Nicander says the dryinus is called 
also hydrus and chelydrus, and that 
it has a strong smell. Galen says 
the bite of them is very venomous, 
and the smell so very offensive, that 
it causes those who attempt to de- 
stroy them to think the most 
agreeable smells stinking, ^tius 
says this serpent stinks so griev- 
ously, as even to discover the place 
ivhere it lurks. Thus we see that 
Virgil might well give these ser- 
pents the epithet graves. 

416. Sub immotis prcssepibus.'y 



318 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



S ?tsdf.^'rf 'Sh^ed Vipera delituit, caelumque exterrita fugit : 

flies the light; or that snake, . , , , , , 

the dreadful plague of kine, Aut tccto adsuetus coiuber succedcrc et umbrae, 

which uses to creep into houses 

his'^vlSoKe'cauifke'eS Pcstis acerba bourn, pecorique adspergere virus, 

close to the ground ; be quick . 

with stones, shepherd; be l^Qvit humum. Capc saxa manu: cape robora, 



quick with clubs; 



pastor. 



420 



Pierius says it is ignotis in the Ro- 
man manuscript ; but he justly 
prefers immotis. 

Columella recommends in a par- 
ticular manner the diligent sweep- 
ing and cleansing of the sheepcotes, 
not only to free them from mud and 
dung, but also from noxious ser- 
pents: '^ Stahula vero frequenter 
*' everrenda, et purganda, humor- 
'' que omnis urinse deverrendus 
*' est, qui commodissime siccatur 
'' perforatis tabulis, quibus ovilia 
" consternuntur, ut grex super- 
'' cubet : nee tantum coeno aut 
" stercore, sed exitlosis quoque ser- 
" pentibus tecta liberentur," Im- 
motis therefore in this place means 
such places as have not been duly 
swept and cleansed. 

4>17' Vipera.'] Servius thinks that 
the vipera is so called quod vi pariat; 
others, with better reason, think it 
is so called quod vivum pariat. And 
indeed this animal differs from most 
other serpents, in bringing forth 
its young alive ; whereas the rest 
lay eggs. It is known in England 
under the name of viper or adder. 
The bite of it is very venomous; 
though it seldom, if ever, proves 
mortal in our climate. The most 
immediate remedy for this bite is 
found to be olive oil applied in- 
stantly to the injured part. See 
Phil. Trans, no. 443. p. 313, and no. 
444. p. 394. 

418. Coluber pestis acerba 

bourn.'] I take the serpent here 
meant to be that which Pliny 
calls boas.' This author affirms that 
they s^row sometimes to a prodi- 



gious bigness, and that there was 
a child found in the belly of one 
of them, in the reign of Claudius. 
He adds, that they feed on cow's 
milk, whence they have obtained 
their name. The words of Pliny 
are quoted in the note on book ii. 
ver. 374. 

420. Fovit.] Pierius says it is 
fodit in some ancient manuscripts. 
Foveo properly signifies to foment, 
cherish, or embrace. In the twelfth 
/Eneid It is used to express the 
fomenting of a wound : 

Fovit ea vulnus lympha longaevus lapis. 

In the second Georgick it is used 
for chewing medicinally : 



Animos et olentia Medi 



Ora fovent illo. 

In the fourth Georgick it is used 
for holding water in the mouth till 
it is warm : 

— — Prius haustu sparsus aquaruin 
Ora fove. 

In the first ^Eneid it is used for 
embracing: 

Haec oculis, base pectore toto 



Haeret et interdum gremio fovet : 

And in the eighth : 



■ ■ ■ Niveis hinc atque hinc Diva 

lacertis 
Cunctantem amplexu molli fovet. 

Hence it signifies the assiduous 
attendance of a lover on his mis- 
tress, in the third Eclogue: 



Durn fovei. 



Ipse Neseram 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



319 



Tollentemque minas et sibila colla tumentem 
Dejice: jamque fuga timidum caput abdidit aUe, 
Cum medii nexus, extremaeque agmina caudae 
Solvuntur, tardosque trahit sinus ultimus orbes. 
Est etiam ille malus Calabris in saltibus anguis, 
Squamea convolvens sublato pectore terga, 426 
Atque notis longum maculosus grandibus alvum : 
Qui dum amnes ulli rumpuntur fontibus, et dum 
Vere madent udo terrae, ac pluvialibus austris, 
Stagna colit^ripisque habi tans, hie piscibus atram 
Improbus ingluviem ranisque loquacibus explet. 
Postquam exusta palus, terraeque ardore dehis- 
cunt, 432 



and, whilst he rises threat- 
ening, and swells his hissing 
neck, knock him down : ana 
now he is tied, and hides his 
fearful head; and his middle 
folds, and the last wreaths of 
his tail are extended, and his 
utmost spires are slowly drag- 
ged along. There is also that 
grievous snake in the Cala- 
brian lawns, raising his breast, 
and waving his scaly back, 
and having his long belly 
marked with large spots, who, 
so long as any rivers burst 
from their springs, and whilst 
the lands are moist with the 
dewy spring and rainy south 
winds, frequents the pools, 
and making his habitation in 
the banks, greedily crams his 
horrid maw with fishes and 
loquacious frogs. But after 
the fen is burnt up, and the 
earth gapes with heat. 



Thus also, in the ninth Mne'id, it 
signifies the keeping close of an 
army within their trenches : 



Non obvia ferre 



Arma viros ; sed castra fovere. 

In much the same sense it seems 
to be used here, for a serpent's 
keeping close to the ground, under 
the muck of an uncleansed sheep- 
cote. Besides it is usual for ser- 
pents to lay their eggs under dung, 
in order to be hatched. 

Cape saxa mami.'] The rapidity 
of this verse finely expresses the 
necessary haste on this occasion, to 
catch up stones and sticks to en- 
counter the serpent. This is one 
o*f the many beautiful passages, 
which Vida has selected from our 
poet : 

At mora si fuerit damno, properare ju- 

bebo. 
Si se forte cava extulerit male vipera 

terra 
Tolle moras, cape saxa manu, cape ro- 

bora pastor ; 
Ferte citi flammas, date tela, repellite 

pestem. 

422. Timidum.'] It is iumidum in 
the Bodleian manuscript, in the old 



Nurenberg edition, and in the 
Venice edition of 1475. 

425. Est etiam ille malus, &c.] It 
is universally agreed, that the Poet 
heredescribesthe Chersydrus, which 
is so called from yji^Tog earth, and 
i/^&>g water, because it lives in both 
these elements. The form and na- 
ture of this serpent are no where 
so well described, as in this passage 
of our Poet. 

428. Ulti.] It is ullis in the 
King's manuscript. 

431. Explet.'] Pierius says it is 
implei in many of the ancient manu- 
scripts. 

432. Exusta.] It is generally 
read exhausta, Pierius found exusta 
in the oblong, the Lombard, and 
some other ancient copies. It is 
exusta in the Bodleian manuscript, 
and in several of the oldest edi- 
tions. Heinsius also, and after him 
Masvicius read exusta. I believe 
that Virgil wrote exusta, and that 
his transcribers have altered it to 
exhausta, imagining it to be suf- 
ficient to say the fens are exhausted, 
those watery places not being easily 
burnt up. But whosoever is con- 
versant in fenny countries, must 



320 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



he leaps on the dry ground, 
and rolling his flaming eyes 
rages in the fields, being ex- 
asperated by thirst, and ter- 
rified with the heat. May [ 
never at such a time indulge 
myself in sleeping in the open 
air, or lie upon the grass on 
the edge of a wood; when 
renewed by casting its slough, 
and glittering with youth, it 
leaves its young ones or eggs 
at home, and slides along, 
raising itself up to the sun, 
and brandishes its three-forked 
tongue. 1 will also teach you 
the causes and signs of their 
diseases. The filthy scab af- 
flicts the sheep, when jf cold 
rain. 



Exilit in siccum, et flammantia lumina torquens 
Saevit agris, asperque siti atque exterritus aestu. 
Ne mihi turn molles sub dio carpere somnos, 435 
Neu dorso nemoris libeat jacuisse per herbas : 
Cum positis novus exuviis nitidusque juventa 
Volvitur, aut catulos tectis aut ova relinquens, 
Arduus ad solem et Unguis micat ore trisulcis. 
Morborum quoque te causas et signa docebo. 
Turpis oves tentat scabies, ubi frigidus imber 



know that in dry seasons no lands 
are more scorched up than the fens. 
In the first Georgick we have, 

Et cum exustus ager morientibus aestuat 
herbis. 

This whole 432d verse is wanting 
in one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 

433. Exilit.'] Pierius says it is 
exiit in the Lombard and Medicean 
manuscripts. I find the same read- 
ing in one of the Arundelian and 
in one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 
But exilit is generally received. 

Torquens'] It is linquens in the 
King's manuscripts : et also is there 
wanting between siccum and Jlam- 
mantia. 

434. Exterritus,'] Fulvius Ur- 
sinus says it is exercitus in the old 
Colotian manuscript, which is no 
inelegant reading. 

4i25. Ne.] It is nee in one of the 
Arundelian and in one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts, and in an old quarto 
edition printed at Paris in 1494. 

Die] It is divo in the King's, the 
Bodleian, one of the Arundelian, 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, 
and in several of the old editions. 
In the other Arundelian copy it 
is clivo. 

437.] In one of the Arundelian 
manuscripts, after this verse, follows 

Luhrica convolvens suilato feciote terga, 



which is a repetition of ver. 426, 
there being only luhrica put for 
squamea. 

The Poet now describes the dis- 
eases, to which sheep are subject. 

441. Turpis oves tentat scabies.] 
Columella observes, that no ani- 
mal is so subject to the scab as 
sheep. He adds, that it usually 
arises on their being injured by 
cold rain or frost ; or after shear- 
ing, if they are not well washed, or 
if they are permitted to feed in 
woody places, where they are 
wounded with brambles and briars ; 
or if they are folded where mules, 
or horses, or asses have stabled i 
or if they are lean for want of suf- 
ficient pasture, than which nothing 
sooner brings the scab. '' Oves 
" frequentius, quam ullum aliud 
" animal infestantur scabie, quae 
'' fere nascitur, sicut noster n>e- 
" raorat poeta, 



Cum frigidus imber 



*' Altius ad vivum persedit, et horrida 

*' cano 
♦' Bruraa gelu: 

" vel post tonsuram, si remedium 
'' praedicti medicaminis non adhi- 
" beas, si aestivum sudorem marl, 
" vel flumine non abluas, si tonsum 
'^ gregem patiaris sylvestribus ru- 
" bis, ac spinis sauciari: si stabulo 
" utaris, in quo raulae, aut equi, aat 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



^321 



Altius ad vivum persedit, et horrida cano 442 
Bruma gelu ; vel cum tonsis illotus adhaesit 
Sudor, et hirsuti secuerunt corpora vepres. 
Dulcibus idcirco fluviis pecus omne magistri 
Perfundunt, udisque aries in gurgite villis 446 
Mersatur, missusque secundo defluit amni. 
Aut tonsum tristi contingunt corpus amurca, 



and winter stilt with hoary 
frost, have pierced them to 
the quick: or wiien their 
sweat not being washed oflF 
after shearing has slack to 
them, anfl rough tlioins have 
torn their bodies. On this 
account the shepherds wash 
ail their cattle in sweet rivers, 
an<i the ram is plunged in the 
river, and sent to float along 
the stream. Or else they 
anoint their shorn bodies with 
bitter lees of oil. 



'* asini stetenint: praecipue tamen 
*' exiguitas cibi maciem, macies 
" autem scabiem facit." 

Uhi.2 Fieri us says it is cum in 
the Roman manuscript. 

445. Dulcibus idcirco fluviis, &c.] 
Columella says, that a sheep, as 
soon as it is sheared, should be 
anointed with a mixture of the 
juice of lupines, the lees of old 
wine, and the dregs of oil in equal 
quantities 3 and be washed four 
days afterwards in the sea, or in 
rain water salted : and quotes the au- 
thority of Celsus, who affirms that 
a sheep treated after this manner 
will be free from the scab for a 
whole year ; and that the wool 
will be the longer and softer for 
it. " Verum ea quandocunque de- 
" tonsa fuerit, ungi debet tali rae- 
'' dicaminCj succus excocti lupini, 
" veterisque vini faex, et amurca 
*' pari mensura miscentur, eoque 
" liquamine tonsa ovis imbuitur,, 
*' atque ubi per triduum ^elibato 
" tergore medicamina perbiberit, 
" quarto die, si est vicinia maris^ 
" ad littus deducta mersatur : si 
" minus est, cselestis aqua sub dio 
" salihus in hunc usum durata 
'^ paulum decoquitur ; eaque grex 
'' perluitur. Hoc modo curatum 
'' pecus anno scabrum fieri non 
'' posse Celsus affirmat, nee dubium 
" est, quin etiam ob earn rem Ian a 
" quoque moUior atque prolixior 
*' renascatur." Thus Columella re- 
commends the salt water as a pre- 



servative against the scab ; but 
Virgil advises the use of sweet 
river water as a cure after the 
distemper has seized them. 

448. Jut tonsum tristi, &c.] We 
have seen already in the preceding 
note, the composition which Colu- 
mella prescribes against the scab. 
The same author adds Hellebore to 
his liniment, when it is to be applied 
to a sheep in which the disease is 
already begun : " Facit autera com- 
" mode primum ea compositio, 
" quam paulo ante demonstravi- 
'' mus, si ad faecem et amurcam, 
'^ succumque decocti lupini misceas 
" portione aequa detritum album 
" Elleborum." It must be allowed 
that the ointment which Virgil here 
described is an excellent composi- 
tion. 

Aynurca.'] The less of oil are 
much in use in Italy, and other 
countries where oil is made. We 
find it recommended by Cato for 
many purposes. We find the vir- 
tues of it collected by Dioscorides. 
It is, says he, the dregs of oil. Be- 
ing boiled in a copper vessel to the 
consistence of honey, it is astrin- 
gent, and has the other effects of Ly- 
cium. It is applied to the tooth- 
ache and to wounds with vinegar 
and wine : it is added to medicines 
for the eyes, and to those which 
obstruct the pores. It is the better 
for being old. It is applied with 
success to ulcers of the anus and 
pudenda. If it is boiled again with 

<2 T 



S22 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



lu"Vu?fan?i&^p"tchfand Et spumas misceiit argenti, vivaque sulphurs, 

fat wax, and squill, and strong _ . . . 

hellebore, and black bitumen. Idaeasque piccs, ct piugues UDguinc ceras, 450 
Scillamque, Helleborosque graves, nigrumque 
bitumen. 



verj uice to the consistence of honey, 
it draws out rotten teeth. It heals 
the scab in cattle, being made into 
a liniment with the decoction of 
lupines and charaseleon. It is of 
great service to anoint the gout and 
pains of the joints with dregs of 
oil. A skin with the hair on 
smeared with it, and applied to the 
dropsy, diminishes the swelling: 
'A^ogy», VTroa-Totdf^r, Iffriv Ixxtx? tjTj-I*- 
dXt/iofiiViii. «? T<5 i-<ptl6u<rec Iv yCd'K'^cd x.v- 
TT^ta ^^X»i^ fAiXtraioovg a-vtrToia-iag, irrv^ii. 

TTOIOVTX TT^O? 06 KX) TO T^VKIOV. iK.Ti^ia-(rOV 

^£ XXI TT^og o^oirccXyleig xxi T^xvfAxrx. 
hci^piof/ivri f^iT o\cvg « olvov >j eivojUiXi- 
rog. f^tyvvrxi cl x.xi o^6x?\.fzix,x7g ovvci- 
fiiFi xxi ifA7r}\x<rTiKx7g. TrxXxiouf^ivri rs 
(iiXriariyinrxi. iyKXva-fAci n eo^u kxi 
x^ttla Kxt nc^T^xtg %iXy,af4.zva,ig Itrri x,^^- 
<rtf/.og. IkQxXXu 21 x.xt rovg l^6x^f*zvovg 
ooovrxg c-yy Of*(px)civ&) h^/v^h'itrx x^^i fAi- 
Xtreooovg a-uc-roia-iag, x,xt 7ri^i7rXx<r6i7<rx. 
•^a^xg Tg KTi/^vm (Tvv dipfiofv x<Pi-^^f4,xrt 

XXS ^X^XiX'gOVTOg KXTX^^lOuivYI Si^XTTlVU. 

i di aiZi\/nrog xxi 7r^o(!-(pxrog Tro^xy^txovg 
x,xi x^S^na-tKovg aipiXii. 6i^ft>j KXTxvTXn- 
6i7a-x ly^^tofizvvi 21 tig y.ahioi kxi \7irt6lfiir/i 
Itt] rm vd^oTTiKav, a-AxXzi tov oyKov. 

449- Spumas argenti.'] Some have 
supposed the poet to mean quick- 
silver, grounding their opinion on 
the following passage of Calpur- 
nius: 

Vivi quoque pondere melle 



Argenti coquito. 

But quicksilver was never called 
spuma argenti, by which name the 
ancients seem to understand what 
we call litharge. It arises in the 
purification of silver, as is plainly 
enough described by Pliny: "Fit 



" in iisdem Metallis et quae vocatur 
" Spuma argenti. Genera ejus tria 
" . . . . Omnis autem fit excocta sua 
" materia ex superior! catino deflu- 
" ens in inferiorem, et ex eo sub- 
'' lata veruculis ferreis, atque in 
*' ipsa flamma convoluta veruculo, 
'^ ut sit modici ponderis. Est au- 
*' tern, ut ex nomine ipso intelligi 
" potest, fervescentis et futurae ma- 
** teriae spuma. Distat a scoria, 
** quo potest spuma a faece distare. 
" Alterum purgantis se materiae, 
" alterum purgatae vitium est." 

Vivaque sulpliura.] So Serviusand 
most of the commentators agree 
that it should be read. Pierius 
found et sulphura viva in the Ro- 
man, Medicean, and Lombard ma- 
nuscripts. I find the same reading 
in the King's, the Cambridge, the 
Bodleian, and in both the Arunde- 
lian manuscripts. It is ac sulphura 
viva in one of Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts, and in several of the oldest 
printed editions. 

Sulphur is without doubt a good 
ingredient in this composition. 

450. IdcEasque pices.'] Pitch is 
called Idaean, because pitch-trees 
abound on mount Ida. Pitch is of 
two sorts, arida or sicca, which we 
call properly pitch ; and liquida, 
which we call tar. I believe it is 
the pix liquida or tar which the 
poet means. Pliny says it is an ex- 
cellent remedy for the scab in 
cattle : ^' Praestantissimum ad ca- 
'' num et jumentorum scabiem." 

Ceras.] Wax seems to be added 
chiefly to give to the medicine the 
consistence of an ointment. 

451. Scillam.] The squill or sea 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



Non tamen ulla magis praesens fortuna laborum S.?us^o^ayf^L''/eoV^^^^^ 

est, 
Quam si quis ferro potuit rescindere summum 
Ulceris os : alitur vitium, vivitque tegendo ; 454 
Dum medicas adhibere manus ad vulnera pastor 



open; 
the distemper increases, and 
gains strength by being co- 
vered ; whilst the shepherd 
refuses to apply his healing 
hands to the wound, 



onion is a bulbous root, like an 
onion_, but much larger. It is 
brought to us from Spain. 

Hellehorosque graves.'\ There are 
two kinds of Hellebore, the black 
and the white. I take it to be the 
white Hellebore that Virgil means. 
Columella expressly mentions the 
white Hellebore, as we have seen 
already in the quotation from that 
author, in the note on ver. 448. 
Dioscorides however ascribes the 
power of curing this sort of diseases 
to the black Hellebore: 0£g««;r£yg* 

xctt ^iffOT/jg x.ott Ki^^tvov IXxiov Kurx^^io- 
^ivog. The white Hellebore is 
known to be serviceable in diseases 
of the skin, if it be externally ap- 
plied J but it is too rough to be 
taken inwardly, as the black sort is. 
Hence perhaps Virgil added the 
epithet graves, to express the white 
Hellebore, 

Bitumen.] Bitumen, or, as the 
Greeks called it, Asphaltus, is a fat, 
sulphureous, tenaceous, inflamma- 
ble substance, issuing out of the 
earth or floating upon water, as at 
Pitchford in Shropshire, and in the 
island Barbadoes in America, whence 
it is brought hither under the name 
of Barbadoes tar. Sometimes it is 
found hardened into a substance 
like pitch. The most esteemed is 
that which is found in Judaea, and 
is called Bitumen Judaicum, or Jews- 
pitch. This is seldom if ever 
brought hither: what is generally 
sold for it being little different from 
common pitch. Pliny mentions a 
mixture of bitumen and pitch as 



good for the scab in sheep : " Est 
" et Pissasphaltos, mixta bitumini 
" pice, naturaliter ex Apollionata- 
" rum agro. Quidam ipsi miscent, 
" prsecipuum ad scabiem pecorum 
'' remedium." 

452. Non tamen ulla, &c.] It has 
not without reason been said by the 
writers of Virgil's life, that our 
poet had studied physic. The 
respect with which he mentions 
the physician lapis, and the many 
medicines occasionally mentioned 
in his works, greatly favour this 
tradition. He has just mentioned 
an ointment, compounded with 
greater skill, and described with 
greater propriety of expression, 
than any that we meet with in the 
other writers of agriculture. He 
now adds with much judgment that 
no application is of so much service, 
as to lay open the ulcer, and give 
a free discharge to the corroding 
matter. 

453. Rescmdere.~\ It properly sig- 
nifies to open; in which sense it is 
used also in the twelfth ^neid : 

Ense secent lato vulnus, telique late- 

bram 
Rescindant penitus. 



In the same manner it seems 
have been used by Lucretius : 



to 



Proptereaque solere vias rescindere nos- 

tris 
Sensibus. 

454. Alitur vitium, vivitque te- 
gendoJ} Thus also Lucretius : 

Ulcus enim vivescit, et inveterascit 
alendo. 
2t2 



324 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and sitting still begs the Gods 
to assist him. Moreover when 
the pain, reaching to the very 
bones of the bleating sheep, 
rages, and a parching fever 
consumes their limbs, it has 
been of service to avert the 
kindled heat, and pierce the 
vein spouting with blood be- 
tween the under parts of the 
foot; just as the Bisaltze use, 
and the fierce Gelonian, when 
he flies to Rhodope, and to 
the deserts of the Getae, and 
drinks milk mixed with horse's 
blood. If you ever see one 
of your sheep stand at a dis- 
tance, or often creep imder 
the mild shade, or lazily crop 
the ends of the grass, or lag 
behind the rest, or lie down, 
as she is feeding, iathe middle 
of the piain, and return alone 
late at night; immediately cut 
off the faulty sheep. 



Abnegat, aut meliora Deos sedet omnia poscens. 
Quill etiam ima dolor balantum lapsus ad ossa 
Cum furit, atque artus depascitur arida febris; 
Profuit incensos aestus avertere, et inter 
Ima ferire pedis salientem sanguine venam : 460 
Bisaltae quo more solent, acerque Gelonus, 
Cum fugit in Rhodopen, atque in deserta 

Getarum, 
Et lac concretum cum sanguine potat equino. 
Quam procul aut moUi succedere s^pius um- 
brae, 
Videris, aut summas carpentem ignavius herbas, 
Extremamque sequi, aut medio procumbere 
campo 4^66 

Pascentem, et serae solam decedere nocti ; 
Continue culpam ferro compesce, prius quam 



456. Et."] Pierius says it is aut in 
the Roman manuscript. 

Omnia.'] It is omina in the Ro- 
man manuscript, according to Pie- 
rius, It is omina also in the Ve- 
nice edition in fol, 1475, La Cerda 
reads omina. 

461. BisaltcE.] The Bisalice were 
a people of Macedon. 

Gelonus.] See book ii. ver. 115. 

462. Rhodopen.] Rhodope is a 
mountain of Thrace. 

Getarum.] The Getce or Dacians 
dwelt near the Danube. 

463. Lac concretum cum sanguine 
potat equino.] This custom of 
drinking milk and horse's blood 
is ascribed to the Massagetae, a peo- 
ple of Scythia, by Dionysius. 

Tovs ^£ fttr avetroXtiiv Se, a-l^^jv xiXd^evres 

Maffffayerat vxiovtrt, 6ouv pvrtj^ts oifrav. 
'Avi^ss ois li-nr ai/rog lyuy (jt,riff ofri? Irai^os 
'E/^^iXufur fiKXa ya,^ rs KotKo^uvori got 

iiXXuv 
Ov ya,^ ff(p)v fftTOio fitXip^evos iffr'tv i^eohn, 
OuTi f/Xv evV sTvos fJi.irKdrifii9i. akXct yk^ 



Klfjt,ari /iiffyovTis Xiuxov yaka, ^uTra ri- 
Sivrai. 

Pliny mentions the Sarmatce as mix- 
ing millet with the milk of mares^ 
or the blood drawn out of their legs : 
'' Sarmatarum quoque gentes hae 
" maxime pulte aluntur, et cruda 
'* etiam farina equino lacte vel san- 
" guine e cruris venis admixto." 
The same is said by other authors, 
of different nations inhabiting those 
parts. 

464. Aut.] It is ut in the King's 
manuscript. 

Succedere.] In one of the Arunde- 
lian manuscripts it is succumbere. 

ScEpius.] In the King's manu- 
script it is mollius. 

465. Ignavius.] Pierius found 
segnius in the Roman manuscript. 

467. Et,] The conjunction is 
omitted in one of Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts, 

SercB nocti."^ Pierius says it is 
3€ra nocte in the ancient manu- 
scripts. 

468. Co?iii?iiio culpam ferro com- 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



325 



Dira per incautum serpant contagia vulgus. 



before the dreadful contagion 

spreads itself over tlie unwary 

, ... flock. The whirlwind which 

Non tarn creber agens hyemem nut aequore brings on a storm, 



turbo, 



470 



pesce.'] Most of the printed editions, 
and all the manuscripts which I 
have collated, have continuo ferro 
culpam, which seems very unhar- 
monious, Servius reads continuo cul- 
pam ferro, which order of the words 
Pierius also found in the Roman, 
the Medicean, and other very an- 
cient manuscripts. I have found 
the same order in two old editions 
in folio, printed at Venice in 1475 
and 1476, and in an old edition of 
the Georgicks in octavo, printed at 
Paris in 1495. The same is ad- 
mitted also by La Gerda and Hein- 
sius. 

Servius interprets culpatn ferro 
compesce to mean, that the shepherd 
by killing an infected sheep avoids 
being guilty himself of a crime, in 
suffering it to live to the damage 
of the whole flock : '' Atqui habere 
" morbum culpa noa est : sed hoc 
** dicit, occidendo earn, tuam cul- 
** pam compesce, id est, vita cri- 
" men in quod potes incidere, si, 
'^ dum uni parcis, fuerit totus grex 
" ejus contagione corruptus." Gri- 
moaldus is of the same opinion ; 
*' Hsec inquam signa et indicia, 
" quae febrim sclent antecedere, si- 
'' mul atque perceperis, crimen vi- 
** tabis, in quod poteris incidere, si 
" dum uni parcis, fuerit totus grex 
'* ejus contagione corruptus." La 
Cerda gives the same interpretation : 
" lUud culpam ferro compesce refer- 
'' tur ad earn culpam, quae reside- 
" bit in pastore, nisi utatur ferro." 
Ruaeus seems to think that by cul- 
pam is meant the disease of the 
sheep : " hujus morbum coerce sta- 
" tim ferro." But Virgil is not here 
speaking of any partial disease, 
which might be restrained by being 



cut out, but of a general disorder 
which spreads itself over the whole 
body, making the sheep loath its 
food, and lag heavily behind the 
flock. I am persuaded therefore, 
that by culpam he means the in- 
fected sheep, and by ferro compesce, 
that it should be killed, to prevent 
the contagion from spreading. 
Thus in the second Georgick, he 
uses ramos compesce, to express the 
pruning of trees, to hinder the too 
luxuriant spreading of the branches : 



Turn denique dura 



Exerce imperia, et ramos compesce flu- 
en tes. 

All the translators have concurred 
in understanding culpam compesce, 
to be meant of killing the sheep. 
Thus May : 

Straight kill that sheepe 



Before th' infection through th' whole 
flocke doe creepe ; 

And Dryden : 

Revenge the crime, and take the traitor's 
head, 

E'er in the faultless flock the dire con- 
tagion spread : 

And Dr. Trapp : 

Delay not, kill th' infected ; e'er thro' all 
Th' unwary flock the dire contagion 
spread. 

470. Non tain creber agens, &c.] 
After these diseases, to which the 
sheep are subject, our Poet adds 
that the distempers of cattle are 
innumerable. Hence he takes oc- 
casion to speak of a great plague, 
by which all the country about the 
Alps was laid waste. 

'' The words agens hyemem,'' says 
Dr. Trapp, *' are commonly ex- 



326 



R VIRGILII MARONIS 



and rushes upon the main, is 
not so freqaent, as ihe plagues 
of cattle are many; nor do 
these diseases prey on single 
bodies, but sweep otf whole 
folds on a sudden, both lambs 
and sheep, and the whole 
flock entirely. This any one 
maj' know, who sees the lofty 
Alps, and the Noric castles 
on the hills, and the fields 
of lapidian Timavns, and the 
realms of the shepherds even 
now after so long a lime de- 
serted, and the lawns lying 
waste far and wide. Here 
formerly a most miserable 
plagne arose by the corruption 
of the air. 



Quam multae pecudum pestes: nee singula morbi 
Corpora corripiunt ; sed tota aestiva repente, 
Spemqiie gregemque simul, cunctamque ab 

origine gentem. 
Turn sciat, aerias Alpes, et Norica siquis 
Castella in tumulis, et lapidis arva Timavi, 475 
Nunc quoque post tanto videat desertaque regna 
Pastorum, et longe saltus lateque vacantes. 
Hie quondam morbo eaeli miseranda coorta est 



'' plained by tempestalem ferens. 
" And then it should be rendered 
'^ not in but before a storm. But 
*^ I rather understand it, agens for 
*' agitans hyemem, or aerem in 
*' hyeme, i. e. procella. Surely a 
'' multitude of whirlwinds do not 
'^ precede a storm ; but are them- 
" selves one, or at least parts of 
*'^one." 

I do not think that creber agens 
hyemem turbo is to be undersiood to 
mean, that many whirlwinds pre- 
cede one single storm, but that the 
sea is tossed by many whirlwinds, 
each of which precedes a storm. 
That a violent storm is usually 
preceded by a whirlwind is most 
certain : therefore to enter into a 
debate, whether the whirlwind is 
to be accounted a forerunner of a 
storm, or a part of the storm itself, 
would be a mere logomachy. 

471. Quam multce pecudum pestes."] 
The Poet cannot mean that pesti- 
lences or murrains are as common 
among the cattle, as storms on the 
sea. Pestis is a more general word, 
and includes all the several great 
misfortunes that attend them. Thus 
a little before, he calls a serpent 
Pestis acerba bourn. 

472. Estiva.] '' Mstiva are the 
" shady places, in which the cattle 
" avoid the heat of the sun in sum- 
*' mer; thus Statius : 



" Et umbrosi paiuere cestiva LycatV 

Servitjs. 

47s. Spemque gregemque.'] Ser- 
vius interprets this, agnos cum ma- 
tribus, which is generally received. 

474. Turn sciat, ^c] '^ The sense 
*' is this, if any one knows what 
'' sort of places these were, when 
*' they were full of cattle, he may 
" now see them empty, though it 
" is a long time since the pesti- 
" lence." Servius. 

Aerias Alpes.] The Alps are 
called aericBt from their great 
height : they divide Italy from 
France and Germany. 

Norica.] Noricum was a region 
of Germany, bordering on the Alps. 
Great part of it is what we now 
call Bavaria. 

lapidis arva Timavi.] Some read 
lapygis; but lapygia was a part of 
the kingdom of Naples, far distant 
from the Alps, of which Virgil is 
here speaking. lapidis is certainly 
the true meaning : for lapidia was 
in the Venetian territory, where 
the river Timavus flows. This part 
of Italy is now called Friuli. 

Schrevelius and Masvicius read 
arma instead of arva. 

Timavus is a river of Carniola : 
it is now called Timavo. 

478. Hie] It is hinc in one of 
the Arundelian manuscripts. 

Virgil is generally thought to 



GEORG. LIB. III. 327 

Tempestas, totoque autumni incanduit aestu, o? luS ""°"^'' ''" ^^^ ''^•'' 



speak in this place of the plague 
which broke out in Attica, in the 
first year of the Peloponnesian war, 
which has been so accurately de- 
scribed by Hippocrates, Thucydides, 
and Lucretius. This last author, 
whom our Poet seems to emulate, 
derives this plague from Egypt : 

Haec ratio quondam niorborum, et mor- 

tifer aestas 
Finibu* Cecropiis funestos reddidit agros, 
Vastavitque vias, exhausit civibus urbem. 
Nam penilus veniens ^gypti e finibus 

onus, 
A era permensus multum, camposque 

natantes, 
Incubuit tandem populo Pandionis : 

omnes 
Inde catervatim morbo mortique daban- 

tur. 

A plague thus raised, laid learned Athens 

waste ; 
Thro' ev'ry street, thro* all the town it 

pass'd. 
Blasting both man and beast with poisjwus 

wind : 
Death fled before, and ruin stalk* d behind. 
From Egypt's burning sands the fever 

came, 
More hot than those that raised the deadly 

flume. 
At length the raging plague did Athens 

seize, 
The plague ; and death attending the dis- 
ease. 
Then men did die by heaps, by heaps did 

fall. 
And the whole city made one funeral. 

Creech. 

But Thucydides says it began first 
in that part of Ethiopia, which bor- 
ders upon Egypt, then it fell upon 
Egypt and Libya, and into the 
greatest part of the Persian terri- 
tories; and then it suddenly in- 
vaded the city of Athens : "h^^octq 

21 TO f^lv tt^Ztcv, ax; Xzyiroii, £| AiSio- 
TTiug T?5 vTTgg AiyvTrTov, &7riiTcc og x.eci 
h A'lyvTTrov Kcci AtCyijv xo6t2/3>3, ku) U 
rviv BuTiX'wg yyiv ri)V ttoXXk*. I5 dl tkv 
'ASvivectav 'TTOh.iv \%et7e»«.ieiq hiTturi. But 



Virgil seems to make his pestilence 
much more ancient than that of 
Athens, for he mentions Chiron, 
who lived at least five hundred 
years before Hippocrates, who flou- 
rished about the beginning of the 
Peloponnesian war. Besides, Thu- 
cydides mentions the plague of 
which he speaks, as not proceeding 
even to the Morea j but depopu- 
lating only Atliens, and the most 
populous cities in that neighbour- 
hood : Ket/ £5 fiiv HsXoTrivvwov ovx, 
gTrsjA^gv, 0, ri kx) u^iov utfhv, iTnmucATo 
21 'Adiivecg ftev f^dy^iarroi, \%ino(, 2\ »x} rav 
uXXav ^u^iav ra, TioXvocv^pcoTroTeiTec, It 
does not seem therefore, that this 
pestilence invaded the Alpine coun- 
tries, which were not so very popu- 
lous, abounding only with large 
pastures. However, as Virgil no 
doubt had some view to the pesti- 
lence described by Thucydides and 
Lucretius, I shall lay the parallel 
places in those authors before the 
reader. 

479- Totoque autumni incanduit 
cestu.'] Servius interprets this, " It 
" burnt in the first part of the au- 
" tumn, which always makes a 
" pestilence grievous." In this he 
is followed by Grimoaldus, La 
Cerda, and almost ail the commen- 
tators. In this sense May translates 
it: 

Hence by corruption of the ayre so 

strong 
A plague arose, and rag'd all autumne 

long: 

And Dryden ; 

During th' autumnal heats th' infection 
grew. 

Dr. Trapp seems to understand the 
Poet to mean that the plague raged 
with such heat, as is usual in au- 
tumn : 



^28 



R VIRGILIl MARONIS 



and destroyed all kinds of 
cattle, all kinds of wild beasts, 
and poisoned the lakes, and 
infected tbe pastures with its 
venom. Nor did they die after 
the common manner, bnt 
when the burning drought 
insinuating itself into all the 
veins had contracted the mi- 
serable limbs, the corrupted 
moisture oozed out, and con- 
verted all the tainted bones 
into its substance. Oftentimes, 
in the midst of a sacrifice to 
the gods. 



Et genus omne neci pecudum dedit, omne 

ferarum ; 480 

Corrupitque lacus : infecit pabula tabo. 
Nee via mortis erat simplex : sed ubi ignea 

venis 
Omnibus acto sitis miseros adduxerat artus, 
Rursus abundabat fluidus liquor ; omniaque in 

se 
Ossa minutatim morbo coUapsa trahebat. 485 
Saepe in honore Deum medio stans hostia ad 

aram, 



*Twas here, long since, a plague from 

tainted air 
Rose, and with all the fires of autumn 

burn'd. 

481. Corrupitque lacus.] It is cor- 
ripuit in the King's and in one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts. Pierius 
reads corripuSt, but he says it is cor- 
rupit in the Medicean, and in some 
other ancient manuscripts. Corrupit 
is generally received. 

482. Nee via mortis erat simplex.'] 
The commentators agree that these 
words mean, that they died after an 
unusual manner. Thus Dryden 
translates them. Strange death I 

483. Sitis.] A parching heat and 
thirst attends all malignant fevers. 
Thus Lucretius : 

Intima pars homini vero flagravit ad 

ossa : 
Flagravit stomacho flamma, ut fornaci- 

bus intus : 

And 

Insedabiliter sitis arida. 

Thucydides mentions a most into- 
lerable thirst, and inward burning, 
insomuch that those who were 
seized witii the plague could not 
bear their clothes, nor so much as 
any linen thrown over them ; that 



they ran into the cold water, that 
some who were neglected threw 
themselves into wells, and that 
those who drank largely did not 
fare the better for it : Ta dl IvTcg 
ovra<i \x.cx.ino a)Wg ^Viii rav ttuvv XiTrrcov 

ciXXc rt K yv^uvov uvz^io-6xi, '^^kjtu tz scv 
Ig v^ai^ '•l^v^^ov <r(poig xvTovg ^itc-tuv. 
Kxi TToXXot rovTo toov yjUiXv^fzivav uvS^a- 

c-rmii TO, T£ tMov xxi iXxs-<rov ttotov. 

486. S(£pe in honore Deum, &c.] 
He comes now to relate particular 
instances of the dire effects of this 
pestilence. The victims dropped 
down dead suddenly before the al- 
tars : or if they lived to bear the 
knife of the sacrificer, their flesh 
would nbt burn ; nor could the au- 
gurs divine any thing from the in- 
spection of their entrails. He then 
mentions the effects of this disease 
on calves, dogs, and swine. 

Thucydides says that prayers to 
the gods and enquiries at the oracles 
were of no service, and at last were 
laid aside: "0(rx t« Tr^og h^oig ix'-tsv- 
<reiy, « i^xvrstoig x-xi ro7g rcioiiToig i%^*i- 
a-xvTo, -TreivTx a.vco^iX'ii ^y, liXiVTaiTig n 
csvtZv ocT^-'icTTric-ctv, vTTo rev KXx.eZ iixa- 



GEORG. LIB. Ill, 



Lanea dum nivea circumdatur infula vitta, 
Inter cunctantes cecidit moribunda ministros. 
Aut si quam ferro mactaverat ante sacerdos, 
Inde neque impositis ardent altaria fibris ; 490 
Nee responsa potest consultus reddere vates : 
-Ac vix suppositi tinguntur sanguine cultri, 
Summaque jejuna sanie infuscatur arena. 
Hinc laetis vituli vulgo moriuntur in herbis, 
Et dulces animas plena ad praesepia reddunt. 
Hinc canibus blandis rabies venit, et quatit 
aegros 496 



llie victim standint; before the 
altar, whilst tlie woolly fillet 
is encompassed with a snowy 
garland, drops down dying 
amonsfHt the delaying minis- 
ters. Or if the pritst hap- 
pened to stab any one, before 
It died, then the entrails be- 
ing laid on the altars would 
not burn, nor could the augur 
give answers when he was 
consulted; but the knives 
with which they are stuck, 
are scarce tinged with blood, 
and the surface of the sand 
is but just stained with thin 
gore. Hence the calves fre- 
quently die in the plentiful 
pastures, and give up their 
sweet breath at full cribs. 
Hence the gentle dogs run 
mad, 



^ram.^ It is aras in several of 
the old editions. 

487. Lanea.'] Pierius reads linea ; 
but he says it is lanea in the Me- 
dicean, the Lombard, and in some 
other ancient manuscripts. I find 
laurea in some of the old editions; 
but lanea is generally received. 

Infula^ The Infula was a sort 
of diadem or fillet, with which the 
heads of the victims were bound. 
Ruaeus says the vittce were the 
ornaments which hung down from 
the Infula. 

488. Ministros^ Pierius says it 
is magistros in the Roman manu- 
script. 

489. Mactaverat,'] It is macta- 
verit in the King's manuscript. 

Sacerdos.] Dryden lias grossly 
translated this word holy butcher. 

491. Nee responsa potest consultus 
reddere votes.] The entrails of the 
victims were thought not to dis- 
cover the will of the gods, unless 
they were sound. 

492. Ac] It is aut in the King's, 
both the Arundelian, one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts, and in several 
of the oldest editions. In some of 
them it is at. 

493. Jejuna sanie.] In these mor- 
bid bodies, the liquids were almost 



wasted, and, instead of blood, there 
came out only a corrupted matter. 

496. Hinc canibus blaridis rabies 
venit.] The madness to which dogs 
are subject, is attended with most 
dreadful consequences. Their bite 
communicates the madness, not only 
to other animals, but to mankind 
also. The most terrible of all the 
symptoms of this distemper is the 
Hydrophobia, or dread of water : the 
patient, however thirsty, not being 
able to drink any sort of liquor, 
without being thrown into the most 
horrid convulsions. The reader 
may find the description of several 
cases, in the Philosophical Trans- 
actions. The best remedy for this 
disease was communicated to the 
Royal Society by Mr. Dampier, 
and has since been received by the 
College of Physicians into their 
Dispensatory, under the name of 
Pulvis Antilissus, being a composi- 
tion of black pepper and the ash- 
coloured ground liver- wort, in equal 
quantities. The dose of this pow- 
der is four scruples. The person, 
who has the misfortune to be bitten, 
ought to bleed immediately, and 
wash the place carefully, where the 
bite was received, with salt water ; 
and it is no bad precaution, to 
2 u 



330 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and a rattling cough shakes 
the wheezing swine, and tor- 
ments their swelling throats. 
The conquering horse is 
seized, unliappy in his toils, 
and forgetful ot his food, and 
loaths the springs, and stamps 
frequently on the ground with 
his foot: his ears hang down; 
a doubtful sweat breaks oat, 
which grows cold when they 
are dying; 



Tussis anhela sues, ac faucibus angit obesis. 

Labitur infelix studiorum, atque immemor 
herbae 

Victor equus, fontesque avertitur, et pede 
terram 

Crebra ferit : demissae aures : incertus ibi- 
dem 500 

Sudor, et ille quidem morituris frigidus ; ater 



destroy all the clothes which were 
worn at the time, when the acci- 
dent happened. It should be taken 
fasting, for several mornings, in 
warm milk, beer, ale, broth, or 
other such like convenient vehicle. 
It must be taken before the symp- 
toms of madness appear j for other- 
wise it will be ineffectual. See 
the Philosophical Transactions, No. 
237. p. 49. or Lowthorp's Abridg- 
ment, vol. iii. p. 284. 

Thucydides does not mention 
any thing of the dogs running 
mad : he only says they were more 
obnoxious to this distemper than 
other animals, because of their 
greater familiarity with men : Ot dl 
xvvsg fiocXXov cci(7-6ti(riv 7riC^t7^ov rov utto- 
QeiivovToi, ^ici TO ^vvdixiTol(r6xt. 

497. Faucibus angit obesis.] Swine 
are subject to coughs, and inflam- 
matory swellings in the throaty 
whence the Poet with great pro- 
priety uses the word angit, angina 
being the Latin name for a quinsey. 

498. Labitur infelix studiorum, 
&c.] Having briefly made mention 
of dogs and swine j he now speaks 
more largely of the violent effects 
of this distemper on horses: 

Infelix studiorum.] Thus we have 
victus animi, fortunatus laborum, 
Icela laborum y &:c. 

Immemor hcrbce."] Some render 
this unmindful of victory, taking 
herbm to express those herbs, which 
were used by the ancients to de- 



note conquest. But I rather be- 
lieve, that Virgil means only pasture. 
Thus in the eighth Eclogue 3 

Immemor herbarum quos est mirata 
juvenca. 

Dryden has introduced both senses : 

The victor horse, forgetful of his food. 
The palm renounces, and abhors the 
flood. 

499* Pede terram crebra ferit.] 
" In the Lombard manuscript it is 
'' crebro ferit, nor need we be 
" afraid of the false quantity, for 
" Carisius acknowledges the adverb 
" tertio for a dactyl, and sero is in 
'' the measure of a trochee in Sta- 

" tius." PlERlUS. 

The most violent diseases of 
horses are frequently attended with 
an unusual stamping on the ground. 

500. Demissce aures.] The hang- 
ing down of the ears is mentioned 
by Columella, as a symptom of pain 
in a horse's head: " Capitis dolo- 
'* rem indicant lachrymae, quae pro- 
'' fluunt, auresque flaccidae, et cer- 
'' vix cum capite aggravata, et in 
" terram suramissa." 

Incertus sudor.] By a doubtful 
sweat, he either means a sweat of 
which it may he doubted whether 
it is a good or a bad symptom, or 
else a sweat that comes and goes 
uncertainly and irregularly. 

501. Morituris frigidus.] In the 
Cambridge, one of the Arundelian, 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



331 



Pellis, et ad tactum tractanti dura resistit. 
Haec ante exitium primis dant signa diebus, 
Sin in processu coepit crudescere morbus, 504 
Turn vero ardentes oculi, atque attractus ab alto 
Spiritus, interdum gemitu gravis, imaque longo 
Ilia singultu tendunt : it naribus ater 



their skin grows dry, and 
feels hard and rough. These 
were the symptoms at the 
beginning, but when the dis- 
ease began to increase, their 
eyes were inflamed, and their 
breath was fetched deep, and 
sometimesloaded withagroan, 
and their long sides lieaved 
with sobs; black blood gushes 
out of their nostrils, 



and one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, 
it is moriturus. 

A cold sweat is universally known 
to be a bad symptom. 

Jter pellisr\ The dryness of the 
skin is inconsistent with the sweat- 
ing just mentioned. We must 
therefore understand the Poet, not 
to mean that all these symptoms 
were found in every horse, but 
that they were variously affected. 
The cold sweat is a sign of a di- 
minution of the vital powers j and 
the dryness and hardness of the 
skin shew that there is a great 
inward heat, and an obstruction of 
the matter, which ought to be per- 
spired through the pores of the 
skin. 

502. Et ad tactum.~\ In the Ro- 
man manuscript it is at ; and in 
the Lombard it is tracturtis accord- 
ing to Pierius. 

503. T>ardi] It is dat in one of 
the Arundelian manuscripts. 

505. Ardentes oculi.'] Thucydi- 
des, in his description of the plague 
at Athens, says they were at first 
seized with a heat and heaviness in 
the head, with a redness and in- 
flammation of the eyes: 11 ^Ztov ^h 
rviq xgiptftAiJj B'i^f^cct la-^v^xt xxi rav o(p-' 

^xvi. Thus also Lucretius: 

Principio, caput incensum fervore gere- 

bant: 
Et dupliceis oculos suffusa luce rubenteis. 

First fierce unusual heats did seize the 

head ; 
The glowing eyes, "with llood-shot learns 

looked red, 



Like Hazing stars, approaching fate fore- 
shciff'd. 

Cbeech. 

Attractus ah alto spiritus.'] In the 
King's manuscript it is abstractus. 

Thucydides speaks of their fetch- 
ing their breath with difficulty, and 
with a strong smell : Trvivfcct ctrovov, 

506. Imaque longo ilia singultu 
tendunt.] Thucydides says that most 
of them had sobs or hickups, at- 
tended with strong convulsions : 

Ayy| Tg To<V ttMiotiv hiTriTTTi r.zr/i, 
G-TToia-^ov Iv^idovcrx {(r^vpov. Thus Lu- 
cretius: 

Intolerabilibusque malis erat anxius an- 

gor 
Assidue comes, et gemitu commista 

querela, 
Singultusque frequens noctem persaepe, 

diemque 
Compere assidue nervos et membra 

coactans, 
Dissolvebat eos, defessos ante, fatigans. 

To these fierce pains "were joiii'd continual 

care, 
Afid sad complainings, groans, and deep 

despair 
Tormenting, vexing sobs, and deadly sigJis, 
Which rais'd convulsions, broke the vital 

ties 
Of mind and limbs. 

507. It naribus ater sanguis, &c.] 
In one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts 
it is autem instead of ater. 

Thucydides says their inner 
parts, their throat and tongue, dis- 
charged blood : K»( rcc IvTog, 4? n (pd- 
gyyl Kctt K yXairarot, ivBvg ocl^etraidn ^v. 
Thus Lucretius ; 
2 u 2 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and their roagh tongoe cleaves 
to their clotted jaws. At first 
it was of service to drench 
them with the T^naean liqnor: 
this seemed the only hope to 
preserve them from death: 
but afterwards even this was 
their destruction : and being 
recruiled with rage they 
burned: and, (oh! may the 
gods give a better mind to the 
pious, and that error to their 
enemies!) when they were in 
the pangs of death, they tore 
their own mangled flesh with 
their naked teeth. 



Sanguis, et obsessas fauces premit aspera lingua. 
Profuit inserto latices infundere cornu 
Lenaeos ; ea visa salus morientibus una. 510 
Mox erat hoc ipsum exitio, furiisque refecti 
Ardebant, ipsique suos, jam morte sub aegra, 
Dii meliora piis, erroremque hostibus ilium ! 
Discissos nudis laniabant dentibus artus. 



Sudabant etiain fauces intrinsecus atro 
Sanguine, et ulceribus vocis via septa 

coiibat ; 
Atque animi interpres tnanabat lingua 

cruore, 
Debilitata malis, motu gravis, aspera 

tactu. 

The mouth andjatvs ivere filled rvith clotted 

Hood ; 
The throat with ulcers : the tongue could 

speak no more. 
But overfi^'io*dj and drotcii'd in putrid 

gore, 
Grett) useless, rough, and scarce could make 

a moan. 

Creech. 

509' Profuit inserto latices, &c.] 
Wine was frequently given to horses 
by the ancients. Virgil sajs this 
was found of service at first, but 
afterwards it proved destructive to 
them, throwing them into a fury, 
by increasing their spirits. Dryden 
understands our author to mean, 
that the wine was of service at the 
beginning of the distemper,but was 
destructive, if given too late : 

A drench of wine has with success been 

us*d; 
And thro' a horn the gen'rous juice in- 

fus'd : 
Which timely taken op'd his closing 

jaws; 
But if too late, the patient's death did 

cause. 
For the too vigorous dose too fiercely 

■wrought ; 
And added fury to the strength it brought. 
Recruited into rage he grinds his teeth 
In his own flesh, and feeds approaching 

death. 

The sens^ is very good ; but I be- 



lieve it is not that which Virgil 
meant. 

513. Dii meliora piis, &c.] This 
was a frequent form among the an- 
cientsof expressing their abhorrence 
of any great mischief, by wishing it 
from themselves to their enemies. 
Something like this is in the eighth 
^neid : 

Quid memorem infandas ccedes.'' quid 

facta tyranni 
EflPera? Dii capiti ipsius generique re- 

servent. 

Erroremri Pierius says it is ar- 
doretn in the Roman manuscript. 

514. Discissos nudis laniabant den- 
tibus artus.'] In one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts it is Diffissos. 

'' The word nudis seems to imply, 
" that by tearing their flesh, they 
" at the same time tore the gums 
" from their teeth, ut focditatem ex- 
" primer etf adjecii nudis ; says a 
" commentator in the Varior. And 
" what he means I know not." 
Dr. Trapp. 

This commentator is Phylargy- 
rius. I take his meaning to be, 
that the gums being ulcerated, and 
rotted away from their teeth, was a 
filthy sight ; which every one must 
allow that has seen it. 

Though perhaps by naked teeth 
the Poet may intend to express the 
horrid grinning of the horse in the 
agonies of death : for Lucretius has 
used the same expression for the 
grinning of dogs : 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



333 



Ecce autem duro fumans sub vomere taurus 51 5 
Concidit, et mixtum spumis vomit ore cruorem, 
Extremosque ciet gemitus : it tristis arator, 
Moerentem abjungens fraterna morte juvencum, 
Atque opere in medio defixa relinquit aratra. 
Non umbrae altorum nemorum, non mollia pos- 

sunt 520 

Prata movere animum, non qui per saxa volutus 
Purior electro campum petit amnis ; at ima 
Solvuntur latera, atque oculos stupor urget in- 

ertes, 
Ad terramque fluit devexo pondera cervix. 
Quid labor aut benefacta juvant ? quid vomere 

terras 5^ 



But lo, the bull smokinc un- 
der the weight of the plough 
drops down, and casts ont of 
his mouth blood mixed with 
foam, and gives his last groans: 
the melancholy ploughman 
goes away, unyoking the steer 
that grieves at his brother's 
death, and leave? the forsaken 
plough in the middle of his 
toil. But he can receive no 
pleasure from the shade of 
the lofty woods, nor from the 
soft meadows, no, nor from 
the river, which rolling over 
the rocks flows clearer than 
amber through the plain: his 
flanks grow flabby, a deadness 
seizes his heavy eyes, and his 
unwieldy neck hangs droop- 
ing to the ground. What do 
his loils and good services 
now avail! or what benefit is 
it to him to have 



Mollia ricta fremunt duros midaritia 
denies. 

515. Ecce autem duro fumans, 
&c.] As the Poet had before spoken 
of bulls and horses together, when 
he treated of their generation, and 
the ways of managing them ; so 
now he joins them in distress, and 
describes the misery of the bull im- 
mediately afterthat of thehorse. This 
passage is wonderfully poetical. He 
represents the bull dropping down 
under the yoke, and the unhappy 
farmer leaving the plough in the 
middle of the field. Hence he slides 
into a beautiful digression, concern- 
ing the wholesome simplicity of the 
food of these animals, which he op- 
poses to the luxurious and destruc- 
tive diet of mankind. He repre- 
sents the mortality among the Idne 
to have been so great, that they 
were forced to use buffaloes for the 
sacrifices of Juno, to bury the 
corn in the ground with theirhands, 
and to draw their waggons them- 
selves, for want of cattle. 

517- Extremosque ciet gemitus: 
it tristis arator.'] The pause in this 
verse is too beautiful, not to be ob- 



served. The departure of the 
mournful ploughman, and the grief 
of the surviving bullock, for the 
death of his partner, are exceedingly 
moving. The slow measure of the 
next line, consisting of spondees, is 
no less worthy of observation. 

519. Relinquit.'] It is reliquit in 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, and 
in several of the oldest editions. 

520. Non umhrcB, &c.] This re- 
lates to the surviving bullock, who 
is represented as inconsolable. He 
receives no satisfaction from shady 
woods, fine meadows, and clear 
streams : but he falls away, his 
eyes grow stupid and heavy, and 
his neck hangs down, not being 
able to support his head. 

Non mollia possunt prata movere 
animum.] Pierius has Non gramina 
possunt grata movere animum; but 
he says the common reading is in 
all the ancient manuscripts. 

522. At.] It is et in the King's 
manuscript. 

524. Pondered It is vertice in 
the King's manuscript. 

525. Quid labor, &c.] These six 
lines are not without reason admired 



334 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



turned the heavy clods with 
the share? he never siiflFered 
by the Massic gilts of Bacchus, 
or by luxurious banquets. 
Ilis food was leaves and plain 
grass, and his drinlc the clear 
springs, and rivers exercised 
with running. Nor did care 
ever disturb his wholesome 
rest. At no other time do 
they say that kine were want- 
ing for the sacrifices of Juno, 
and that the chariots were 
drawn by unequal butfaloes 
to the high temples. There- 
fore with difficulty they till 
the earth with harrows, and 
set the corn with their very 
nails, and draw the rattling 
waggons over the high moun- 
tains with strained necks. 



Invertisse graves ? atqui non Massica Bacchi 
Munera, non illis epulse nocuere repostae : 
Frondibus et victu pascuntur simplices herbas. 
Pocula sunt fontes liquidi, atque exercita cursu 
Flumina,nec somnos abrumpit cura salubres. 530 
Tempore non alio dicunt regionibus illis 
Qusesitas ad sacra boves Junonis, et uris 
Imparibus ductos alta ad donaria currus. 
Ergo aegre rastris terram rimantur, et ipsis 
Unguibus infodiunt fruges, montesque per 
altos 535 

Contenta cervice trahunt stridentia plaustra. 



by Scaliger, who declares he had 
rather have been the author of 
them, than to have had tlie favour 
of Croesus or Cyrus. 

59,6. Massica Bacchi viuneraJ] 
See the note on book ii. ver. 143. 

59S. Victu.'] Pierius says it is 
victum, in the Lombard manuscript, 
which he thinks no inelegant read- 
ing. 

529. Atqve.] Schrevelius reads 
aut. 

530. Abrumpit.'] Some read ab- 
rupit. 

531. Tempore non alio, &c.] Ser- 
vius and after him many others 
imagine that the Poet here alludes 
to the famous story of Cleobis and 
Biton, the sons of a priestess of 
Juno at Argos, who, when the 
beasts were not ready at the time 
of the sacrifice, yoked themselves, 
and drew their mother to the tem- 
ple. The priestess hereupon en- 
treated the goddess to reward the 
piety of her sons with the greatest 
good that could befal men : which 
she granted by causing them to be 
found dead in their beds the next 
morning. The reader will find this 
story related by Herodotus, by Plu- 
tarch in his treatise of Consolation, 
addressed to ApoUonius, and by 



Cicero, in his first book of Tusculan 
Questions. But I do not find any 
mention of a scarcity of cattle by 
means of any plague; but only that 
the mules or bullocks were either 
not ready soon enough, or were 
tired as they drew the chariot. 
Besides, the scene of this story is 
laid at Argos, whereas Virgil is 
speaking of the Alps. 

532, Uris.] See the note on 
book ii. ver. 374. 

533. Alta ad donaria.] " Dona- 
" ria are properly the places where 
" the gifts to the gods are laid up. 
'' Hence the word is transferred to 
** signify temples. For thus pulvi- 
*' naria also are used for temples, 
" whereas they are properly the 
'' cushions or couches, which used 
" to be spread in temples." Servius. 

534:. Ergo wgre, &c.] The Poet 
describes the great mortality of 
cattle, by saying the people were 
forced to scratch the earth with 
their nails, in order to sow or ra- 
ther set their corn, scarce being 
able to drag the harrows over the 
fields, and that they strained their 
own necks with the yokes. 

536. Contenta.~\ This is gene- 
rally interpreted not contented, but 
strained. 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



335 



Non lupus insidias explorat ovilia circum, 



The wolf does not now exei- 
cj»e his wiles around ihe folds, 



It will not, I believe, be disa- 
greeable to the reader, if I now lay 
before him an abstract of the ac- 
count of the disease which raged 
among the kine in England, in the 
year 1714. This account was drawn 
up by Mr. Bates, then surgeon to 
his majesty's household, who was 
appointed, together with four jus- 
tices of the peace, by the lords jus- 
tices, to enquire into this distemper, 
and by him communicated to the 
Royal Society. It is printed in the 
Philosophical Transactions, Kb. 358. 
p. 872. Jones's Abridgment, vol. v. 
p. 48. 

This Gentleman observes^ that 
all cows have naturally a purga- 
tion by the Anus for five or six 
weeks in the spring, from what the 
cow-keepers call the frimness of 
the grass ; during which time they 
are brisk and lively, their milk 
becomes thinner, of a bluish colour, 
sweeter to the taste, and in greater 
plenty. But the spring preceding 
this distemper was unusually dry 
all over Europe. Hence there was 
but little grass, and that so dry, and 
void of that frimness which it has 
in other years, that Mr. Bates could 
not hear of one cow-keeper, who 
had observed his cows to have that 
purgation in the same degree as 
usual : and very few who had ob- 
served any at all. They all agreed 
that their cows had not given above 
half so much milk that summer 
as they did in others 3 that some of 
them were almost dry; that the 
milk they did give was much 
thicker, and yellower than in other 
years. It was observed by the 
whole town, that very little of the 
milk then sold would boil without 
turning; and it is a known truth, 
that the weakest of th^ common 
purges deprive a cow entirely of 



her milk , from all which circum- 
stances he thinks it evident, that 
the want of that natural purgation 
was the sole cause of this disease ; 
by producing those obstructions, 
which terminated in a putrefaction, 
and made this distemper contagious. 

The symptoms of this distemper 
were, that they first refused their 
food ; the next day they had husk- 
ish coughs, and voided excrements 
like clay; their heads swelled, and 
sometimes their bodies. Jn a day 
or two more, there was a great 
discharge of a mucous matter by 
their nose, and their breaths smelled 
offensively. Lastly a severe purg- 
ing, sometimes bloody, which ter- 
minated in death. Some cows died 
in three days,^ and others in five or 
six, but the bulls lived eight or 
ten. During their whole illness, 
they refused all manner of food, 
and were very hot. 

Of sixteen cows which he dis- 
sected, the five first had herded 
with those that were ill, and the 
symptoms of this distemper were 
just become visible ; in these, the 
gall-bladders were larger than usual, 
and filled with bile of a natural 
taste and smell, but of a greener 
colour. Their sweet-breads were 
shrivelled, and some of the glands 
obstructed and tumefied. Many of 
the glands in their mesenteries 
were twice or thrice their natural 
bigness. Their lungs were a little 
inflamed, and their flesh felt hot. 
All other parts of the bowels ap- 
peared as in a healthful state. The 
next six that he opened had been 
ill about tw^o days : in them the 
livers were blacker than usual, and 
in two of them there were several 
bags, filled with a petrified sub- 
stance like chalk, about the bigness 
of a pea. Their gall-bladders were 



336 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Touii^l nock's? a'siSpe?'' Nec gregibus nocturnus obambulat; acrior ilium 



twice their natural bigness, and 
filled with a greener bile than the 
first. Their sweet-breads were 
shrivelled, some of their glands 
very large and hard, and of a 
blackish colour. The glands in 
their mesenteries were many of 
them five times as big as naturally, 
and of a blackish colour. Their 
lungs were inflamed, with several 
bags forming. Their intestines 
were full of red and black spots. 
Their flesh was very hot, though 
not altered in colour. The five 
last that he opened were very near 
dying; in them he found the liver 
to be blackish, much shrivelled 
and contracted, and in three of 
them there were several bags, as 
big as nutmegs, filled with a chalky 
substance. Their gall-bladders 
were about three times as big as 
usual, and filled with a deep green 
bile. Their sweet-breads were 
shrivelled and contracted, many of 
their glands very large and hard, 
and of a black colour. The glands 
in their mesenteries were many of 
them distended to eight or ten 
times their natural bigness, were 
very black, and in the pelvis of 
most of those glands in two cows 
there was a yellow putrefaction, of 
the consistence of a sandy stone. 
Their intestines were of the colour 
of a snake, their inner coat exco- 
riated by purging. Their lungs 
were much inflamed, with several 
bags containing, a yellow purulent 
matter, many of them as big as a 
nutmeg. Their flesh was extreme 
hot, though very little altered in 
colour. These were the general 
appearances ; but in some other 
dissections, he observed the follow- 
ing remarkable particulars. In one 
the bile was petrified in its vessels, 
and resembled a tree of coral, but 



of a dark yellow colour, and brittle 
substance. In another there were 
several inflammations on the liver, 
some as large as a half-crown, 
cracked round the edges, and ap- 
peared separating from the sound 
part, like a pestilential carbuncle. 
In a third, the liquor contained in 
the Pericardium appeared like the 
subsidings of lime-water j and had 
excoriated, and given as yellow a 
colour to the whole surface of the 
heart and Pericardium, as lime- 
water could possibly have done. 

All the medicines that were ap- 
plied proved ineffectual, and the 
method by which the contagion 
was at last suppressed was this : 
they divided their cows into small 
parcels, by which means they lost 
only that parcel in which the con- 
tagion happened ; for otherwise the 
disease would spread from one in- 
fected cow, through a whole herd. 
They also brought all their cows 
to be burned or buried with quick 
lime, to encourage which, the king 
allowed them a reward, out of his 
own civil list, for every cow so 
brought, which amounted in the 
whole to 6774^. Is. Id. The num- 
ber of bulls and cows lost by this 
disease were five thousand four 
hundred and eighteen, in the coun- 
tiesof Middlesex, Essex, and Surrey; 
and of calves, four hundred and 
thirty-nine. 

537. No7i lupus insidias explorat, 
&c.] The Poet having already 
mentioned the destruction which 
was made among the cattle, now 
represents this wasting pestilence 
as extending itself through earth, 
sea, and air : he observes that 
physic was of no service, and that 
even the divine masters of the art 
failed. To complete the horror of 
this pestilence, he represents Tisi- 



I 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



337 



Cur domat ; timidi damae, cervique fugaces 
Nunc interque canes, et circum tecta vagan- 

tur. 540 

Jam maris immensi prolem, et genus omne na- 

tantum 
Littore in extreme, ceu naufraga corpora, fluctus 
Proluit : insolitae fugiunt in flumina phocae. 
Interit et curvis frustra defensa latebris 
Vipera, et attoniti squamis astantibus hydri. 545 
Ipsis est aer avibus non aequus, et illae 
Praecipites alta vitam sub nube relinquunt. 
Praeterea jam nee mutari pabuJa refert, 
Quaesitaeque nocent artes : cessere magistri 



care subdues him: the timo- 
rous deer and flying sta^s now 
wander among the dogs; and 
about tlie houses. Now the 
waves cast upon the shore the 
offspring of the vast ocean, 
and all sorts of fishes, like 
shipwrecked bodies; and un- 
usual sea calves Hy into the 
rivers. The viper perishes, in 
vain defended by its winding 
den; and the "water snakes 
astonished with erected scales. 
The air no longer agreed even 
with the birds, but down they 
fell, leaving their lives under 
the lofty clouds. Moreover, 
it was of no service now to 
change their pasture, and the 
arts of medicine were injuri- 
ous: the masters themselves 
failed. 



phone, one of the Furies spreading 
death and destruction all around, 
the cattle falling by heaps, their 
hides useless, and the wool spread- 
ing the infection in those who 
presumed to weave it into garments. 
Thucydides says, that the pesti- 
lence, which he describes, was more 
dreadful, than can be expressed by 
words, and was more grievous than 
could be borne by human nature, 
which shewed it plainly to be none 
of the common sort of diseases. 
For even beasts and birds of prey, 
which use to feed on human car- 
cases, would hardly touch the 
bodies of those who lay unburied, 
and if they tasted them, they died 
themselves : FivofAzvov yci^ K^iia-a-cv 
Myov TO liooi; tjJj vocrcv, ras re ahXcc 

0-tV TT^OITiTflTrTiV lx,<i.(na , KOt] h TftJ^g s^a- 

Xatrt fcctXio'Tx osAAo Ti «> ifrav |t»vT£o'(pAij' 
ri. Tct ya^ device, Kxi TiT^ctTroda ocrcc 
uv6^a7rMv ol-mroii, '7rah>,a)v ard^av yiy- 
vofAiVMV, i) ov 'T^o<r^zi, « yivTcif^,ivcc ^a- 
(p&u'^iTo. Thus also Lucretius: 

Multaque humi cum inhumata jacerent 

corpora supra 
Corporibus, tamen alituum genus atque 

ferarum 



Aut procul absiliebat, ut acrem exiret 

odorem ; 
Aut ubi guslarat, languebat iiiorte pro- 

pinqua. 
Nee tamen omnino temere illis solibus 

uUa 
Comparebat avis, nee noctibu' ssecia 

ferarum 
Exibant sylvis: languebant pleraque 

morbo, 
Et moriebantur. 

541. Jam maris immensi prolem.'] 
The Poet here openly contradicts 
Aristotle, who says, that a pesti- 
lential disease does not seem ever 
to invade fishes, as it often does 
men, horses, oxen, and other ani- 
mals, both tame and wild: Notmi^x 
ol Pioi^aoig fch Iv evdivi ro7g l^Sva-i (pxi- 

motl IfATTlTTTOV, OtOV ItTI TCOV UvS^aTTOfV 

crvfAQxivn TToXXoixtg, kx] rav l^aoroxav 
y-cti TiT^ecTro^ofv, ug tTTTrovg xeci ^ovg iceti 
rm ciXXaty i\g 'iviet kcci Jj^ggot xxt ocy^ioc I 
and that the animals of the rivers 
and lakes are not subject to the 
plague : Ttlg ^g -jroTUfAioig kxi Xtf^- 
vxtoigj Xoif&ai^ig fiiv ot'^g Tovroig ovdivi 
yivirxt. 

543. Infiumina.'] In the King's 
manuscript it is ad jiu7nina. Pie- 
rius found the same reading in the 
Lombard manuscript. 

549. Quasitceqite nocent artes.'] 
2 X 



338 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



•Trl.'la^ci^'iSJSmrustt^on Phillyrides ChiroD, Amythaoniusque Melam- 

of Ainylhaon. 

pus. 550 



Thucydides says the physicians at 
first could be of no service to the 
sick, because they did not know 
the nature of the distemper, but 
died themselves above all others, 
because of their greater communi- 
cation with the sick : Ovn yu,^ ixr^oi 
tj^xovv TO TT^arov Ss^etTrivovng uyvoicc, 
<«AA civTot fzciXia-roi g^vjjo-xev oVa> x,oit f>e,oc- 
Xia-ra 7r^o<rv\&<roiVt ovrs aXXvi uvG^UTitei 
7gx,vvi ovhfAix. And afterwards he 
says, those who were taken care of, 
and those who were not, died alike: 
that there could be found no re- 
medy that was of service : that 
what did ^ood to one did harm to 
another : "Ehvia-xiv dl, ct fdv, u^iXziu,, 

01 ^e KOi) -TToivV Si^XTTiVO/HiVOl. h Ti Ovdlv 

xfltTgiTTJj 'iacf^oc, aq stvuv, o, ri %^v ^gac- 
(Pi^ovreeg a^iXiiv, to ya,^ ra %vnviyKov 
uXMv TovTo KxxTTTi. Thus also Lu- 
cretius : 

Nee requies erat uUa mali, defessa j ace- 
bant 

Corpora, mussabat tacito Medicina ti- 
more : 

And again. 

Nee ratio remedi communis certa da- 

batur. 
Nam quod alts dederat vitales aeris auras 
Volvere in ore licere, et caeli templa 

tueri : 
Hoc aliis erat exitio, letbumque parabat. 

Thus also Mr. Bates, in the ac- 
count above mentioned, says, '' se- 
" veral physicians attempted the 
*' cure, and made many essays for 
'^ that purpose; but the dissections 
** convinced me of the improbabi- 
" lity of their succeeding, with 
" which I acquainted their Excel- 
'' lencies. However they having 
" received a Recipe and directions 
" from some in Holland, said to 
" have been used there with good 



'• success, gave me orders to make 
" trial of it: but the effect was not 
"^ answerable to my expectation, 
'' for in very many instances 1 was 
" not sensible of the least benefit 
"^ ... I think there is no one method 
'' in practice, but what was tried 
^' on this occasion, though I cannot 
" say that any of them was attended 
'' with an appearance of success j m 
'' except that of bleeding plen- a 
" tifuUy, and giving great quan- 
*' tities of cooling and diluting 
" liquids. But by this method, the 
" instances of success were so few, 
" that they do not deserve any fur- 
" ther mention." 

550. Phillyrides Chiron, Amythao- 
niusque Melampus.'] Chiron was 
the son of Saturn and Philyra, as 
was observed in the note on ver. 92. 
When he was grown up, he retired 
to the woods, and having there 
learned the nature and virtues of 
plants, he became an excellent phy- Jj 
sician ; and the herb Centaury had '^ 
its name from this famous Centaur. 
He instructed ^Esculapius in phy- 
sic, Hercules in astronomy, and J 
Achilles in music. He was a prac- ^ 
tical astronomer, and is thought, 
together with Musseus, to have 
framed the first sphere that was 
ever made among the Greeks, for 
the use of the Argonautic expedi- 
tion, in which he had two grand- 
sons engaged. He is supposed by 
Sir Isaac Newton to have been 
about eighty-eight years old at 
that time. 

Melampus was the son of Aray- 
thaon and Dorippe. He was said 
to be famous for augury, and to 
understand the voices of birds and 
other animals. He was also a most 
famous physician, and had a tem- 



GEORG. LIB. III. 



339 



Saevit et in lucem Stygiis emissa tenebris 
Pallida Tisiphone, morbos agit ante metumque, 
Inque dies avidum siirgens caput altius effert. 
Balatu pecorum, et crebris mugitibus amnes, 
Arentesque sonant ripae, collesque supini. 555 
Jamque catervatim dat stragem, atque aggerat 

ipsis 
In stabulis turpi dilapsa cadavera tabo : 
Donee humo tegere, ac foveis abscondere dis- 

cunt. 
Namneque erat coriis usus: nee viscera quisquam 
Aut undis abolere potest, aut vincereflamma : 560 



The pale Tisiphone, being sent 
into «he light (rem the Stvgian 
darkness, rages: she drives 
diseases and tear before her, 
and rising, uprears her de- 
vouring head higher every day. 
The rivers, and withering 
banks, and bending hills re- 
sound with the bleatings of 
sheep, and frequent lowings. 
And now slie destroys them 
by multitudes, and heaps up 
in the stalls the rotting car- 
cases: till at last they found 
the way to cover them with 
earth, and bury them in pit?. 
For even their hides were of 
no use; nor could any one 
cleanse their entrails with 
water, or purfc them with 
fire. 



pie erected to him, with the- insti- 
tution of solemn feasts and sacri- 
fices. He assisted Bias in taking 
away the oxen of Iphiclus, and 
cured the daughters of Proetus of 
their madness. 

Hence we may observe, that Vir- 
gil did not suppose the pestilence 
here described to be the same with 
that at Athens, but several years 
more ancient, even before the Ar- 
gonautic expedition. For we have 
seen already, that Chiron was an 
old man at the time of that expe- 
dition. Iphiclus, whose oxen Me- 
1am pus took away, was the twin- 
brother of Hercules, who was an 
Argonaut. The age of Proetus is 
not very certain ; only thus much 
we may affirm, that he lived many 
years before the Argonautic expe- 
dition. Chiron therefore and Me- 
lampus were contemporaries, and 
this pestilence happening in their 
time, was before the Argonautic 
expedition, not less than five hun- 
dred years before the famous plague 
of Athens. 

May has injudiciously represented 
these two great physicians, as no 
better than cow-leeches ; 

All arts are hurtful, lecclies do no good ; 
Not learned Chiron, nor Melampus sage; 



In which he is followed by Dryden : 

The learned leeches in despair depart : 
And shake their heads, despairing of 
their art. 

555. Arentesque,'] Pierius says it 
is horrentesqiie in the Roman ma- 
nuscript. 

556. Jamque calervaiim dat stra- 
gem.'] Thus Lucretius : 

Incubuit tandem populoPandionis: om- 
nes 

Inde catervatim morbo mortique da- 
ban tur. 

Aggerat.] In the King's manu- 
script it is aggregni. 

558. Foveis.] It is fossis in the 
King's manuscript. Pierius found 
the same reading in the oldest ma- 
nuscripts ; and thinks it better than 
foveis. He observes that fusscE are 
the trenches or great ditches, which 
surround fortified places, and thence 
convey a more ample image of this 
mortality than foveas, which are 
only pits to catch wolves, or for 
other such like mean uses. 

Discunt.] So I read with Hein- 
sius, Paul Stephens, Masvicius, and 
others. The King's manuscript 
also has discunt. The common 
reading Is discant, 
2x2 



340 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS GEORG. LIB. III. 



Kor could their fleeces cor- 
rupted with sores and tiltii 
be shorn, nor could any one 
touch the putrid wool: but 
if any tried the odious cloth- 
ing; then carbuncles, and a 
filthy sweat overspread their 
stinking limbs : and in a short 
time the sacred fire consumed 
their infected members. 



Nec tondere quidem morbo illuvieque peresa 
Vellera, nec telas possunt attingere putres. 
Verum etiam invisos si quis tentarat amictus ; 
Ardentes papulae, atque immundus olentia sudor 
Membra sequebatur : nec longo deinde mo- 
ran ti 565 
Tempore contactos artus sacer ignis edebat. 



563. Verum etiam.] Pierius says 
it is quin eiiam in the Roman ma- 
nuscript. 

564!. Ardentes papulce.~\ I have 
translated these words carbuncles-, 
which are enumerated among the 
symptoms of a pestilence. Dr. 
Hodges, who was a physician at 
London, in the time of the great 
plague in l665, and has left us the 
most authentic account of that dis- 
ease, describes the carbuncle to be 
a small pimple, which on the wast- 
ing or evacuation of its liquor, be- 
comes a crusty tubercle, something 
like a grain of millet, encompassed 
with a circle as red as fire, rising 
at first with an itching, and after- 
wards being accompanied with a 
vehement pain and intense heat : 
" Est pustula minutula, cujus li- 
*' quore utpote paucissimo ocyus 
*' absumpto, vel evacuato, tubercu- 
'' lum se exerit crustosum, granulo 
*' milii baud absimile, furtim pro- 
"^ repens, circulo rubicundissimo, 
*' velut igneo cincta, cum pruritu 
'' imprimis, dein cum vehement! 
*' dolore, et ardore intensissimo 
*^ orta, a lixivio venefico causti- 
*' cante." Servius also interprets 
ardentes papulw, carhunculi. Dry- 
den seems to have been led by the 



sound of the word papules, to place 
the seat of these carbuncles in the 
people's paps. 

Immundus sudor.] Servius inter- 
prets this morbus pedicularis, in 
which he is followed by May 3 

Hot carbuncles did on their bodies grow. 
And lice-engendering sweat did overflow : 

And Dryden : 

Red blisters rising on their paps appear. 
And flaming carbuncles; and noisome 

sweat, 
And clammy dews, that loathsome lice 

beget. 

But I do not find any sufficient au- 
thority for this interpretation. 

566. Cmiacios artus.] In the 
King's manuscript, and in some of 
the old editions, it is contractos. 

Sacer ignis.'] By this seems to 
be meant an Erysipelas, or St. An- 
thony's fire. Thucydides mentions 
small pustules and creeping tetters 
among the symptoms of the plague : 

(Xxio-iv llr,v6r,Kog. Thus also Lucre- 
tius; 

Et simul ulceribus, quasi inustis omne 

rubere 
Corpus, ut est per membra sacer cum 

diditur ignis. 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



GEORGICORUM 



LIBER QUARTUS. 



PrOTINUS aerii Mellis cselestia dona 
Exequar, hanc etiam, Maecenas, aspice partem, 
Admiranda tibi levium spectacula rerum, 
Magnanimosque duces, totiusque ordine gentis 



Next I shall pursue the ce- 
lesti.ll gift of aerial honey : 
and do you, O Meecenas, 
vouchsafe to read this also. 
I shall lay before you the 
wonderful actions of these 
small animals, the bravery of 
their leaders, and the 



1. Prot'mus aerii MelliSj Slc.'] The 
Poet has devoted the whole fourth 
book to Bees, in which he treats of 
the surprising customs and manners 
of this wonderful insect. 

Virgil calls honey aerial and ce- 
lestial, because it was the opinion 
of the ancient philosophers, that it 
was derived from the dew of hea- 
ven, Aristotle says it comes from 
the dew of the air, especially at the 
rising of the constellations, and the 
falling of the rainbow, MiXi dl to 
VFiTercv he roZ us^og, kxi f^ccXia-ret rav 

Tg<ff. Pliny has almost translated 
these words of Aristotle, but he 
seems to have read (riigiog for Ign : 
'' Venit hoc ex aere, et maxime 
'' siderum exortu, praecipueque ipso 
" sirio explendescente fit." This 
author adds^ 'that it is a doubt 
whether it is the sweat of heaven, 
or somQ saliva of the constellations, 
or an excretory juice of the air 3 
'' sive ille est caeli sudor, sive quse- 



" dam siderum saliva, sive purgan- 
" tis se aeris succus." This hea- 
venly dew they thought was re- 
ceived by the flowers, and thence 
gathered by the bees. This is cer- 
tain, that there is a juice to be 
found at the bottom of all flowers, 
and that this liquor has a sweet 
taste like honey, even in such 
plants as afford the most bitter 
juices, not excepting the ^Zoe itself. 
It does not seem to fall from the 
air, but rather to exude from some 
fine secretory vessels adapted to 
this purpose. It is highly probable, 
that this sweet liquor is the matter 
from which the bees extract their 
honey. 

4. Totiusque ordine.'] In the 
Bodleian, both the Arundelian, and 
in both Dr. Mead's manuscripts, it 
is totiusque ex ordine. Pierius found 
the same reading in several ancient 
manuscripts. It is admitted also 
by Paul Stephens, and several of 
the old editors. 



342 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



""reopie^lci^artieror- the* Mores, ct studia, ct populos, et praelia dicam. 5 

whole state. I\Iy subject is -,- ■ i i • i • • 

smaii, but my glory will not 111 tenui laoor, at tcnuis noii ffloria, SI quern 

be small; if the adverse ^ o -- T 

hlar'm/fn^cation^ '^^*'"'* Numma laeva sinunt, auditque vocatus Apollo. 



6. Atr] It is ac in the King's 
manuscript, which is admitted also 
by Paul Stephens. 

7. Numina Iceva.'] In the King's 
manuscript it is IcEta. 

The commentators are divided 
about the sense of the word l(sva, 
which is sometimes taken in a good 
sense, and sometimes in a bad one. 
Servius takes it in a good sense ; 
and supports his opinion by another 
passage, where intonuit lavum sig- 
nifies a prosperous omen. In this 
he is followed by May : 

Nor thinke the glory slight. 



Though slight the subject be, to him, 

■nhom ere 
Th' invoked Gods, and pleas'd Apollo 

hear: 

And Addison ; 

A trifling theme provokes my humble 

lays. 
Trifling the theme, not so the Poet's 

praise. 
If great Apollo, and the tuneful Nine 
Join in the piece, tc make the work 

divine : 

And Dry den : 

Slight is the subject, but the praise not 

small. 
If heav'n assist, and Phoebus hear my 

call. 

Aulas Gellius understands Virgil to 
mean unpropitious by IcEva ,• " Prop- 
"^ terea Virgilium quoque aiunt, 
"^ multae antiquitatis hominem sine 
" ostentationis odio peritum, nu- 
" mina laeva in Georgicisdeprecari, 
" significantem quandam vim esse 
'' hujuscemodi Deorum in laedendo 
** magis quam in juvando poten- 
*' tem ........ In istis autem diis, 

'' quos placari oportet uti mala a 



" nobis vel a frugibus natis amo- 
'^ veantur, Averruncus quoque ha- 
" betur et Robigus." Grimoaldus 
also has paraphrased tiie passage 
before us according to this inter- 
pretation : '' Id quod praestare me 
"^ posse reor, dunimodo Dii adversi 
" placabuntur, ita ut ne obsint, et 
" Apollo Poetarum amicus, a me 
" invocatus adesse voluerit, ita ut 
" prosit." This is also approved by 
La Cerda and Ruaeus, Dr. Trapp's 
translation also is in this sense : 

Small the argument : not small 

The glory ; if the unpropitious pow'rs 
Oppose not, and Apollo hears our pray*r. 

" The word IcBva,'' says this learned 
Gentleman, '^ may signify either 
"propitious, or the direct contrary. 
" If the former, sinunt must mean 
'' permit by assisting ; if the other, 
"permit by not hindering. The 
" latter is certainly upon all ac- 
" counts the better." 

The Romans generally esteemed 
omens appearing on the left hand 
as good : but this rule did not obtain 
universally among their augurs; for 
Cicero in his first book de Divina- 
tione, informs us, that a raven on 
the right hand, and a crow on the 
left, were looked upon as sure 
omens : " Quid augur, cur a dextra 
" corvus, a sinistra cornix faciat 
" ratum ?" In his second book he 
speaks of thunder from the left 
being accounted prosperous in the 
Roman augury, and observes, that 
the Greeks and Barbarians preferred 
the right hand, but the Romans 
the left : " Quae autem est inter 
" augures conveniens et conjuncta 
" constantia ? ad nostri augurii 
" consuetudinem dixit Ennius, 



I 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



343 



Principio sedes apibus statioque petendae, 



In the first place a seat and 
station are to be sought for 
the bees. 



" Cum tonuit laevum bene tempestate 
" Serena. 

" At Homericus Ajax apucl Achil- 
*' lem querens de ferocitate Troja- 
" norum nescio quid, hoc modo 
** nuntiat : 

** Prospera Jupiter his dextris fulgoribus 
** edit. 

*' Ita nobis sinistra videntur; Grails 
" et Barbaris dextra meliora. Quan-. 
'' quam baud ignore, quae bona 
" sint, sinistra nos dicere: etiam si 
" dextra sint. Sed certe nostri si- 
" nistrum nominaverunt, externi- 
*' que dextrum, quia plerumque 
" melius id videbatur." Thunder 
from the left was, I believe, always 
accounted a good omen by the 
Romans. Thus we have just now 
seen that it was so accounted by 
Ennius: and Virgil has mentioned 
Inionuit Icevum as a good omen in 
the second and in the ninth ^neid. 
Pliny tells us, that the East was 
accounted the left hand of heaven, 
which was divided by the augurs 
into sixteen points ; that the eight 
eastern points were called the left, 
and the eight western points the 
rights and that the thunder which 
came from the eastern points was 
accounted prosperous, but that 
which came from the north-west 
was esteefraed the worst : " Lseva 
'' prospera existimantur, quoniam 

'* lseva parte mundi ortus est 

*' In sedecim partes coelum in eo 
" respectu divisere Thusci. Prima 
** est a septentrionibus ad a^qui- 
" noctialem exortum : secunda ad 
" meridiem, tertia ad sequinoctia- 
*' lem occasum, quarta obtinet quod 
" reliquum est ab occasu ad sep^ 
" tentriones. Has iterum in qua- 
'' ternas divisere partes, ex quibus 



" octo ab exortu sinistras, totidem 
'' e contrario appellavere dextras. 
*' Ex his maxime dirae quae septen- 
" trionem ab occasu attingunt." 
Notwithstanding these arguments, 
I believe Virgil has never used 
Iceviis in a good sense, except in 
the two places quoted above, where 
it relates to thunder. In the first 
Eclogue he plainly uses it in a bad 
sense : 

Saepe malum hoc nobis, si mens non 

Iceva fuisset, 
De coelo tactas memini praedicere quer- 

cus ; 

where Servius himself interprets 
Iceva, stulta, contraria. We find 
the same expression in the second 
^neid : 

Et si fata Deum, si mens non Iceva 
fuisset, 

Impulerat ferro Argolicas violare late- 
bras. 

Upon this passage Servius observes, 
that IcEvum signifies adverse, when 
it relates to human affairs, but 
prosperous, when it relates to the 
heavenly. But this criticism does 
not seem to agree with a passage 
in the tenth ^Eneid : 

Non secus ac liquida si quando nocte 

comet 32 
Sanguinei lugubre rubent ; ac Sirius 

ardor, 
Ule sitim morbosque ferens mortalibus 

aegris 
Nascitur, et Icpvo contristat lumine coelum. 

Thus threat'mng comets, wheji ly night 

they rise. 
Shoot sanguine jstr earns, and sadden all the 

skies : 
So Sirius flashing forth sinister lights 
Pale human kind with plagues, and with 

dry famine frights. 

Dryden. 

Here lavum is applied to the baleful 
light of Sirius or the Dog-star, 



344 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



where the winds have no en- 
trance, for winds hinder them 
from carrying home their 
food, and where no sheep or 
wanton kids ma}' insult the 
flowers, and where no heifer 
wandering in the plain may 
shake off the dew, and bruise 
the rising herbs. And let 
painted lizards with sealy 
backs be far from the rich 
hives, and bee-eaters and 
other birds, and Procne, 
whose breast is stained by 
bloody hands- 



Quo neque sit ventis aditus, nam pabula venti 
Ferre domum prohibent, neque oves hoedique 

petulci 10 

Floribus insultent, aut errans bucula campo 
Decutiat rorem, et surgentes atterat herbas. 
Absint et picti squalentia terga lacerti 
Pinguibus a stabulis, meropesque, aliaeque vo- 

lucres, 
Et manibus Procne pectus signata cruentis. 15 



which is sent by the Gods, as 
much as thunder and lightning. 
To conclude, I think it difficult to 
assign a true reason, why the 
ancients used right and left in 
these different senses. Those wiiich 
Plutarch has given are by no means 
satisfactory: and upon tlie whole, 
I rather believe that by numina Ueva 
the adverse deities are here meant. 

8. Principio sedes apihus, &c.] In 
this paragraph the Poet treats of a 
proper station for the bees, and 
enumerates what are to be avoided, 
and what are convenient for them. 

Statio.'] In this word the Poet 
alludes to military discipline, which 
figure he almost constantly pre- 
serves. Pliny pursues this metaphor, 
saying, " Interdiu st;atio ad portas 
" more castrorum, noctu quies in 
*' matutinum, donee una excitet 
*' gemino aut triplici borabo, ut 
*' buccino aliquo." 

13. Picti squalentia terga lacerti.'] 
Lizards are scaly four-footed ani- 
mals, with long tails. There are 
many sorts of them, one of which 
is the most celebrated under the 
name of crocodile, or alligator. The 
green lizard is the most common 
in Italy : that which we have in 
England is smaller, and of various 
colours : it is commonly called an 
eft or newt. We have also a 



water eft, which is frequently seen 
in standing waters. 

14. Meropesque.'] Pierius found 
meropes without que in the Medi- 
cean manuscript: it is the same in 
one of Dr. Mea(i's copies. 

The Merops, Apiaster, or Bee- 
eater , is shaped like a kingtisher. 
It is about the size of a blackbird. 
Its feet are exactly like those of the 
kingfisher, as is also its bill, only 
it bends a little more downward. 
The top of the head is reddish; the 
neck and shoulders green, with a 
mixture of red. It is yellow under 
the chin, and its breast and belly 
are blue. It feeds on bees and 
other insects. It is found in Italy, 
but has been observed to be most 
frequent in the island of Candy or 
ancient Crete. It builds in caverns, 
and is a bird of passage. May 
translates meropes woodpeckers ; Ad- 
dison woodpecks; Dryden the tit- 
mouse and the pecker's hwigry brood; 
and Dr. Trapp the woodpecker. Bee- 
eater would not have sounded very 
elegantly in verse, but they might 
have preserved the original word 
merops. However, it is certainly 
wrong to call it by the name of 
another well known bird, to which 
it does not bear any resemblance. 

15. Manibus Procne pectus siguata 
cruentis.'] It is Progne in the King's. 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



345 



Omnia nam late vastant, ipsasque volantes 
Ore ferunt dulcem nidis immitibus escam. 
At liquid! fontes, et stagna virentia musco 
Adsint, et tenuis fugiens per gramina rivus, 
Palmaque vestibulum, aut ingens oleaster in- 
umbret. 20 



For Ihese miike wide waste, 
and carry away the bees 
themselves, a grateful food 
to their cruel young. But let 
them have clear springs, and 
pools green with moss, and a 
small rivulet running through 
the grass : and let a palm or 
vast wild olive oversbade the 
entrance, 



both the Arundelian, one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts, and in several 
of the printed editions. But the 
most correct reading seems to be 
Procne, as it is in the Roman, and 
others of the most ancient manu- 
scripts, according to Pierius. The 
same author found Procne also in 
some ancient inscriptions at Rome. 
Procne and Philomela, according 
to the fable, were the daughters of 
Pandion, king of Athens. Procne 
was married to Tereus, king of 
Thrace, by whom she had a son 
named Itys. Tereus afterwards vi- 
olated Philomela, and cut out her 
tongue, to prevent her telling her 
sister: she found means however 
to discover his wickedness, to re- 
venge which the two sisters mur- 
dered Itys, and gave his flesh to his 
father to eat. When the banquet 
was over, they produced the head 
of the child, to shew Tereus in 
what manner they had entertained 
him. He being highly enraged, 
pursued them with his drawn 
sword, and was changed into a 
hoopoo. Philomela became a night- 
ingale, and Procne a swallow, which 
has the feathers of its breast stained 
with red, to which the Poet here 
alludes. Thus also Ovid : 



Neque adhuc de pectore caedis 

Excessere notae, signataque sanguine 
plum a est. 

The swallow is known to feed on 
insects. Hence the Poet mentions 
it among those animals, which are 
dangerous to bees. 



18. Liquidi fontes.'] Varro often 
inculcates this precept, that bees 
should have clear water near them : 
" Quae prope se loca habeat ea ubi 
"' pabulum sit frequens, et aqua 
" pura:" and '^ Cibi pars, quod 
" potio, et ea iis aqua liquida, unde 
" bibant esse oportet :" and " In 
" qua diligenter habenda cura, ut 
" aqua sit pura, quod ad mellificium 
" bonum vehementer prodest." 

20. Palma.'] The palm is of 
several sorts j but that which is 
cultivated in Italy is, I believe, 
chiefly the date tree. Pliny says 
Judaea is most famous for palms, 
which grow also in Italy, but do 
not bear fruit. He adds that they 
do not grow spontaneously in Italy, 
but only in the hotter countries : 
'' Judaea inclyta est vel magis pal- 

" mis Sunt quidem et in 

*' Europa, vulgoque Italia, sed ste- 
" riles. . . . Nulla est in Italia sponte 
" genita, nee in alia parte terrarum, 
" nisi in calida: frugifera vero nus- 
*' quam nisi in fervida." 

Oleaster.'] See the note on book 
ii. ver. 182. 

Inumbret.] " In the Roman and 
*' some other very ancient raanu- 
" scripts it is inumbret, but more 
" have obiwibret." Pierius. 

In the Bodleian manuscript it is 
adumbret. In the King's, the Cam- 
bridge, both the Arundelian, and 
in both Dr. Mead's manuscripts it 
is obumbret; which is admitted also 
by most of the old editors, and by 
Paul Stephens, Schrevelius, and La 
2 Y 



346 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



that when their new kings 
lead the first swarms in the 
spring, and the youth comes 
sporting out of their hives, 
the neighbouring bank may 
invite them to retire from 
the heat, and the tree may 
receive them in its leafy shel- 
ter. Whether the water is 
standing or running, throw 
willows across, and cast great 
stones in it : that they may 
have frequent bridges to rest 
upon, where they may ex- 
pand their wings to the sum- 
mer sun ; if at any time those 
which tarry late have been 
dispersed or plunged into the 
water by the boisterous south- 
east wind. Round these places 
let green Casia, 



Ut, cum prima novi ducent examina reges 
Vere suo, ludetque favis emissa juventus, 
Vicina invitet decedere ripa calori ; 
Obviaque hospitiis teneat frondentibus arbos. 
In medium, seu stabit iners, seu profluet hu- 
mor, 25 
Transversas salices, et grandia conjice saxa : 
Pontibus ut crebris possint consistere, et alas 
Pandere ad aestivum solem ; si forte morantes 
Sparserit, aut praeceps Neptuno immerserit 
Eurus. 



Hsec circum casiae virides, et olentia late 



30 



Cerda. Heinsius, Ruaeus, and Mas- 
TJcius read inumbret. 

22. Ludetque.'] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is laudetque. 

23. Decedere.'] Pierius says it is 
discedere in the Roman manuscript. 

26. Transversas salices, et grandia 
conjice saxa.] Varro would have a 
sraall stream drawn near the apiary, 
not above two or three fingers deep, 
with several shells or small stones 
standing a little above the surface 
of the water, that the bees may 
drink : '' Eamque propinquam, quae 
*' praeterfluat, aut in aliquem locum 
" influatjita ut ne altitudine ascen- 
" dat duo aut tres digitos ; in qua 
'' aqua jaceant testae, aut lapilli, ita 
*'' ut extent paulum, ubi assidere et 
'^ bibere possint." Dryden seems to 
understand the Poet to mean, that 
the willows are to be thrown into 
the standing water, and great stones 
into a running stream : 

With osier floats the standing water 

strow : 
Of massy stones make bridges of it flow. 

29. Immerserit.] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts and in some 
of the old editions it is immiserit. 

30. Casice.] See the note on book 



ii. ver. 213. to which I shall add In 
this place an argument, to prore 
that the casia is not rosemary, as 
some have supposed. Columella, 
speaking of the plants which ought 
to grow about an apiary, mentions 
casia and rosemary as two difiFerent 
plants: " Nam sunt etiam remedio 
'^ languentibus cythisi, tum deinde 
'^ casice, atque pini, et rosmarimts." 

Olentia late serpylla.] Serpyllum, 
in Greek e§5ryA>.o», is derived from 
i£va to creep, because part of it 
falling on the ground sends forth 
roots, and so propagates the plant. 
It was frequent with the Romans 
to change the Greek aspiration into 
S: thus from ^tfu they formed 
serpo, from 'i^fivXXov serpyllum, from 
V? sus, from Ijui semi, from s se, 
from «| sex, from I:tt« septem, from 
vjrgg super, &c. 

The ancients mention two sorts 
of serpyllum, one of the gardens, 
and the other wild. Our serpijllum, 
or mother of thyme, or wild thyme, 
which is common on ant hills in 
England, and grows wild all over 
Europe, is probably that which 
Pliny calls the wild, and Dioscori- 
des the garden serpyllum. The 
plant very much resembles thyme 



t 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



347 



Serpylla, et graviter spirantis copia thymbrae 
Floreat, irriguumque bibant violaria fontem. 
Ipsa autem, seu corticibus tibi suta cavatis. 
Sen lento fuerint alvearia vimine texta, 34 



and far smelling wild thyme, 
and plenty of strong scented 
savoury flowers, and let beds 
of violets drink the copious 
spring. But whether your 
bee-hives are made of hollow 
cork sewed together, or of 
bending twigs interwoven, 



both in appearance and smell, and 
is certainly proper to be planted 
near bees. 

31. Graviter spirantis copia thym- 
hr(E.'\ The thymbra of the ancients 
is generally thought to be some 
species of satureia, or savoury. To 
this opinion however it is objected, 
that Columella mentions thymbra 
and satureia as two diflferent plants : 
" Eaderaque regio foecunda sit fru- 
" ticis exigui, et maxime thymi, 
'' aut origani, turn etiam thymbrcB, 
" vel nostratis cunilae, quam satU' 

" reiam rustici vocant Sa- 

*' poris prsecipui mella reddit thy- 
" mus. Thymo deinde proxima 
*' thymbra, serpyllumque, et origa- 
" num. Tertise notae, sed adhuc 
" generosae, marinus ros, et no- 
" stras cunila, quam dixl salureiam." 
He makes them also different in his 
poem on the culture of gardens : 

Et sattireia thymi referens, thymbrasque 
saporem. 

Thus thymbra and satureia, accord- 
ing to this author, are different, and 
satureia is the same with what he 
calls cunila nostras. But in his ele- 
venth book he mentions a foreign 
sort of cunila, transmarina cunila, 
which perhaps may be the same 
with the thymbra. I believe cunila 
was the common Latin name for 
what the Greeks called thymbra, 
and that the cunila nostras or satu- 
reia was our winter savoury, and the 
cunila transmarina, for which they 
also retained the Greek name thym- 
bra, was the thymbra Grceca J. B. 
which is called also thymbra legitima 
by Clusius. This last plant is said 



to be still called thymbri, thrybi, and 
tribi, by the Cretans, in whose 
country it grows. The former 
grows wild in Italy. Both of them 
have a strong aromatic smell, like 
thyme. 

32. l^iolaria.'] This word signi- 
fies places set with violets. 

33. Ipsa autem, &c.] Here the 
Poet speaks of the structure of the 
hives, and of the avoiding of some 
things which are offensive. 

Corticibus.] The bark of the 
cork tree was called cortex by way 
of eminence. Thus Horace: '' Tu 
" cortice levior.'* Pliny says the 
Greeks not inelegantly called this 
tree the bark tree. " Non infacetae 
'' Graecicorticisarborem appellant." 
We learn from Columella, that it 
was this bark, which was used for 
bee-hives : '' Igitur ordinatis sedi- 
'' bus, alvearia fabricanda sunt pro 
*' conditione regionis : sive ilia fe- 
" rax est suberis, baud dubitanter 
" utilissimas alvos faciemus ex cor- 
'' ticibus, quia nee hyeme rigent, 
" nee candent aestate, sive ferulis 
'' exuberat, iis quoque cum sint 
" naturae corticis similes, e quibus 
'^ commode vasa texuntur." Varro 
says that those bee-hives which are 
made of cork are the best : " Op- 
'' timae fiunt corticeae, deterrimae 
" fictiles, quod et frigore hyeme, 
" et aestate calore vehementissime 
/' hie commoventur." 

34. Lento vimine.'] Columella 
having mentioned the excellence of 
bee-hives made of cork or ferula, 
as he was just now quoted, adds, 
that the next in goodness are those 
made of basket-work ; but if nei- 

2 Y 2 



348 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



let them have narrow en- 
trances; for winter coagu- 
lates the honey with cold, and 
heat melts and dissolves it. 
The force of both these is 
equally dangerous to the bees, 
nor is it in vain that they di- 
ligently smear the small 
chinks in their houses with 
wax, and stop the openings 
with fucus and flowers ; 



Angustos habeant aditus ; nam frigore mella 35 
Cogit hyems, eademque calor liquefacta remittit. 
Utraque vis apibus pariter metuenda: neque illae 
Nequicquam in tectis certatim tenuia cera 
Spiramenta linunt, fucoque et floribus oras 



ther of these are conveniently to be 
had, he recommends timber hol- 
lowed, or cut into planks; and 
agrees with Varro, that those made 
of earthen ware are the worst, be- 
cause they are too obnoxious to the 
extremities of heat and cold : " Si 
'' neutrum aderit, opere textorio 
" salicibusconnectuntur: vel si nee 
'^ hsec suppetent, ligno cavatae ar- 
*' boris, aut in tabulas desectae fa- 
" bricabuntur. Deterrima est con- 
*' ditio fictilium, quae et accendun- 
*' tur aestatis vaporibus, et gelantur 
" hyemis frigoribus." Varro also 
mentions all these sorts: '' Alii fa- 
'^ ciunt ex viminibus rotundas 3 alii 
" e ligno ac corticibus, alii ex ar- 
^' bore cava, alii fictiles, alii etiam 
" ex ferulis quadratas, longas pedes 
" circiter ternos, latas pedem, sed 
*' ita uti cum parum sit qua com- 
" pleant, eas coangustent, ne in 
" vasto loco et inani despondeant 
'^ animum." Virgil mentions only 
cork and basket-work, the first of 
which is undoubtedly the best, 
though not used in England, where 
it is less plentiful than in Italy, 
which abounds with cork trees. 

25. Angustos habeant aditus.'] 
Thus also Varro : '^ Media alvo, in 
'' qua introeant apes, faciunt fora- 
'' mina parva, dextra ac sinistra;" 
and Columella : *' Foramina, qui- 
" bus exitus aut introitus datur, 
'^ angustissima esse debent." 

37' Utraque vis apibus pariter me- 
tuenda.'] The extremes of heat and 
cold are injurious to bees, as we 
have seen in some of the preceding 
notes, where the earthen hives are 



mentioned. Varro also observes 
that the greatest care must be taken, 
lest the bees should be destroyed 
by heat or cold : '* Providendum 
*' vehementer, ne propter aestum 
'' aut propter frigus dispereant." 

38. Cera spiramenta linunt.] The 
cera or wax is properly that sub- 
stance of which the honeycomb is 
formed. Thus Varro : '' Favus est, 
'' quem fingunt multicavatum e 
" cera, cum singula cava sena la- 
'^ tera habeant, quot singulis pedes 
*' dedit natura.*' The propolis or 
bee-bread is a glutinous substance, 
which is found about the door of 
the hives J '' De his Propolim vo- 
"^ cant, e quo faciunt ad foramen 
" introitus protectum in alvum 
" maxime aestate." The erithace 
is that with which they glue the 
honeycombs together, to keep any 
air from coming in between : 
" Extra ostium alvei obturant om- 
*' nia, qua venit inter favos spiri- 
" tus, quam l^tduKnv appellant Grae- 

" ci Erithacen vocant, quo 

" favos extremos inter se congluti- 
" nant, quod est aliud melle, pro- 
'' poli." It seems to be this eri- 
thace therefore, which Virgil means 
under the several appellations of 
cera, face, JloribuSy and gluten. 

39' Fuco etJloribuS'] The /mcms 
is properly a sort of sea- weed which 
was anciently used in dying, and 
in colouring the faces of women. 
Hence all kind of daubing obtained 
the name of fucus. 

By Jioribus the Poet does not 
mean strictly, that the bees plaster 
their hives with flowers, but with 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



349 



Explent, coUectumque haec ipsa ad munera glu- 
ten, 40 
Et visco et Phrygiae servant pice lentius Idse. 
Saepe etiam effossis, si vera est fama, latebris 
Sub terra fovere larem, penitusque repertae 
Pumicibusque cavis, exesaeque arboris antro. 
Tu tamen e laevi rimosa cubilia limo 45 
Unge fovens circum, et raras superinjice frondes. 
Neu propius tectis taxum sine, neve rubentes 



and for these purposes gather 
and preserve a glue more Je- 
nacioiis than bird-lime or 
Idaean pitch. Often also, if 
fame be true, they have che- 
rished tlieir families in ca- 
verns, which they have digged 
under ground : and have been 
found in hollow pumice-stones, 
and in the cavity of a hollow 
tree. Do you also smear their 
gaping chambers with smooth 
mud all round, and cast a few 
leaves upon them. And do 
not suffer a yew tree near 
their houses, nor burn redden- 
ing 



a glutinous substance gathered 
from flowers. 

41. Phrygia . . . pice . . . Idee.'] 
Hence it appears, that it was not 
the Cretan but the Phrygian Ida 
which was famous for pitch trees. 

43. Sub terra.'] Pierius says it is 
sub terrain in some manuscripts, sw6 
terras in the Medicean. I find sub 
terram in the King's manuscript, 
and in an old edition in quarto, 
printed at Paris in 1494; sub terras 
in one of the Arundelian manu- 
scripts. 

Fovere larem.] The common 
reading \sfodere : but it seems to be 
a tautology to say fodere effossis la- 
tebris. I choose therefore to read 
fovere^ with the Medicean and 
King's manuscripts. The same 
reading is admitted also by Hein- 
sius and Masvicius. 

44. Antro^ Fulvius Ursinus says 
it is alvo in his ancient manuscript. 
Pierius also says it is alvo in several 
copies; but he prefers antro. 

45. E l(Evi.] The common read- 
ing is et: but Servius, Heinsius, 
and Masvicius read e. It is e also 
in one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, 
and in most of the old editions. 

Cubilia.] It is cubicula in the 
Bodleian manuscript. 

Limo.] Higinius, as he is quoted 
by Columella, directs us to stop 



the chinks with mud and cow-dung : 
**^ Quicquid deinde rimarum est, 
" aut foraminum, luto et fimo bu- 
" bulo mistis illinemus extrinsecus, 
" nee nisi aditus quibus commeent 
" relinquemus." 

46. Raras superinjice frondes.] 
Higinius also advises to cover the 
hives with boughs and leaves, to 
defend tiiem from cold and bad 
weather: " Et quamvis porticu 
" protectet vasa, nihilo minus con- 
*' gestu culmorum, et frondium 
'' supertegemus, quantumque res 
" patietur, a frigore et tempestati- 
*' bus muniemus." 

47. Taxunu] The yew has al- 
ways been accounted poisonous. 
See the note on book ii. ver. 257. 

In the ninth Eclogue the Poet 
mentions the yews of Corsica, as 
particularly injurious to bees : 

Sic tua Cyrnaeas fugiant examina taxos. 

It does not appear from other wri- 
ters, that Corsica abounded in yews : 
but the honey of that island was 
infamous for its evil qualities. 

Neve rubentes ure foco cancros.] 
It is well known that crabs, lob- 
sters, &c. are turned red by the fire. 
It was customary among the Ro- 
mans to burn crabs to ashes, which 
were esteemed a good remedy for 
burns and scalds. 



S50 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



crabs in the fire: nor trast 
them near a deep fen, or 
where there is a strong smell 
of mud, or where the hollow 
rocks resound, and return the 
image of your voice. More- 
over, when the golden sun 
has driven the winter under 
ground, and has opened the 
heavens with summer lisjlit; 
they immediately wander 
over the lawns and groves, 
and crop the purple flowers, 
and lightly skim the rivers. 
Hence dtlighted with I know 
not what sweetness, they che- 
rish their offspring and young 
brood. Hence they artfully 
build new wax, and form the 
clammy honey. Hence when 
you shall see a swarm issuing 
from their cells fly aloft in 
the clear air, and like a dark 
cloud be driven bv the wind; 
observe them. They always 
seek the sweet waters and 
leafy 



Ure foco cancros, altae neu crede paludi ; 
Aut ubi odor cceni gravis, aut ubi concava pulsu 
Saxa sonant, vocisque ofFensa resultat imago. 50 
Quod superest, ubi pulsam hyemem sol aureus 

egit 
Sub terras, caelumque aestiva luce reclusit ; 
Illae continuo saltus sylvasque peragrant, 
Purpureosque metunt flores, et flumina libant 
Summa leves. Hinc nescio qua dulcedine 

laetae 55 

Progeniem nidosque fovent : hinc arte recentes 
Excudunt ceras, et mella tenacia fingunt. 
Hinc ubi jam emissum caveis ad sidera caeli 
Nare per sestatem liquidam suspexeris agmen, 
Obscuramque trahi vento mirabere nubem ; 60 
Contemplator : aquas dulces et frondea semper 



48. Alice neu crede paludi.'] In 
fens there are no stones for the 
bees to rest upon : hence it appears 
that such places must be very dan- 
gerous to these insects. 

49. Ubi odor cceni gravis.'] Ill 
smells are esteemed very pernicious 
to bees : and none can be more 
offensive than that of stinking mud. 

50. Vocisque.'] In the old Nuren- 
berg edition it is vocique. 

51. Quod superest, &c.] This 
passage relates to the swarming of 
bees, and tiie manner of making 
them settle. 

Ubi pulsam hyemew, &c.] The 
time of the bees going abroad ac- 
cording to Higinius, as he is quoted 
by Columella, is after the vernal 
equinox: ''Nam ab aequinoctio 
" verno sine cunctatione, jam pas- 
'^ simvagantur, etidoneosad foetum 
'^ decerpunt flores." Therefore by 
winter's being driven away, and the 
heavens being opened by summer 
light, we must understand the Poet 



to mean that time, when the spring 
is so far advanced, that the bees are 
no longer in danger from cold 
weather. 

53. Continuo.] See the note on 
book iii. ver. 75. 

Peragrant.'] It is pererrant in 
the old Paris edition in quarto, 
printed in I49S. 

Purpureas Jlores.] I have already 
observed, that purple is frequently 
used by the Poets to express any 
gay bright colour. 

55. Nescio qua dulcedine latcB,] 
Thus in the first Georgick: 

Nescio qua praeter solitum dulcedine 
laetae. 

57' Fingunt.] Servius, La Cerda, 
and many of the old editors, read 
Jigunt. The same reading is in one 
of Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 

58. Hinc] It is hie in the King's 
manuscript. 

59. jEstatem.] It is cestivam in 
the King's manuscript. 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



351 



Tecta petunt : hue tu jussos adsperge sapores, 



shades; here take care to scat- 
ter such odours as are di- 
_- . Tin , • .1 • 1-1 reeled; bruised baiiin, and the 

Irita melispnylla, et cerinthae ignobile gramen vulgar herb o» honey won. 



63. Melisphylla.'] Servius, the old 
Nurenberg edition, Paul Stephens, 
La Cerda, and others read meliphylla, 
which reading I find also in the 
King's manuscript. But in all the 
other manuscripts which I have 
collated, and in most of the printed 
editions, it is melisphylla. 

Melisphyllon seems to be a con- 
traction of melissophyllon, by which 
name we find the plant described 
by Dioscorides, who says also, that 
some call it melittcena. He says it 
is so called because the bees delight 
in this herb : it has stalks and 
leaves like black horehound, only 
they are bigger and narrower, not 
so rough, and smelling like the 
citron ; MsA<5-o-<5<PfAAov, 'o 'inoi ^sA/r- 
rectvccv KetXov(Ti, 2ioi rl '/]^i(r6xi Tyj Tcooe, 
Tcig f^sXiTTetg. EoiKi oi ecvTiig ret (^yAAat 
fceti TO, y,ccv}\.lu, t»] T^oii^vif/Avyi (iotXhuTvi, 
fnil^ova dl recvra, kxi XiTrron^a, ovx. cvtu 
"^otf/ix, ot^ovToi. ^l KiT^of/.tixn. This de- 
scription agrees very well with the 
Melissa or Baum, which is a com- 
mon herb in the English gardens. 
Varro informs us, that the Latin 
name for this plant is apiastriim : 
*' Hos circum vjllam totam alvea- 
*' rium fecisse, et hortum habuisse, 
" ac reliquum thymo, et cythiso 
'' obsevisse, et apiastro, quod alii 
*' f*i>^t(pvXXov, alii f^s>,ia-(roipvXXcv , qui- 
'' dam fiiXivov appellant." Colu- 
mella however speaks of apiastrum 
and meliphyllum, as of two different 
herbs : " Sunt qui per initia veris 
" apiastrum atque, ut ille vates ait, 
'' trita meliphylla et cserinthae ig- 
*' nobile gramen aliasque colligant 
" similes herbas, quibus id genus 
'^ animalium delectatur, et ita alvos 
" perfricent, ut odor et succus vasi 
'' inhaereat," Palladius seems to 
make citreago the same with metis - 



sophyllon, for under the title of 
April he mentions citreago as an 
herb in which bees delight : *' Vasa 
*' autem, quibus recipiuntur, per- 
** fricanda sunt citreagine, vel her- 
" bis suavibus, et conspergenda im- 
*' bre mellis exigui." And under 
the title of June, he seems to men- 
tion melissophyllon for much the 
same purpose : " Ubi globos apium 
" frequentiores videris, uncta manu 
'' succo melissophylli, vel apii reges 
" requiras." Perhaps instead of apii 
we should read apiastri, and then 
he will agree with Columella, in 
making melissophyllon and apiastrum 
different. It is not improbable 
however that he meant baum by 
citreago, for, according to Mat- 
thiolus, the Italians call that plant 
cedronella, and according to Cae- 
salpinus citronella, from the affinity 
between the smell of it, and that 
of a citron. Pliny also has been 
cited in contradiction to Varro, as 
making a distinction between apias- 
trum and melissophyllon, because he 
mentions them both in the twelfth 
chapter of the twenty-first book : 
" Harum ergo causa oportet serere 
'* thymum, apiastrum, rosam^ vio- 
'^ las, lilium, cytisum, fabam, ervi- 
" Hum, cunilam, papaver, conyzam, 
" casiam, melilotum, melissophyl- 
" lum, cerinthen." But it may be 
observed, that Pliny more than 
once has mentioned the same plant 
under different names, one Greek, 
and the other Latin. For as his 
work was a compilation, he some- 
times sets down what the Greek 
authors have said under the Greek 
name, and the account given by 
the Latin authors under the Latin 
name, though they are one and the 
same plant. But with regard to 



352 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



t^e'^cymrait^fcJfckJoS Tinnitusquc cie, et Matris quate cymbala cir- 

about. _ 

cum. 64 



the plant now under consideration, 
he plainly enough shews in other 
passages, that melissophyllon and 
apiastrum are the same. In the 
eleventh chapter of the twentieth 
book, he tells us that, according to 
Hyginus, apiastrum and melisso- 
phyllon are the ''ame: '' Apiastrum 
'' Hyginus quidem melissophyllon 
'^ appellat;" and in the ninth chap- 
ter of the twenty-first book he says 
expressly, that the Latin name of 
melissophyllon is apiastrum : " Me- 
" lissophyllon, quod Apiastrum^ 
'' meliloton, quod sertulam Campa- 
*' nam vocamus." I do not remem- 
ber that apiastrum occurs any where 
in this author, except in the pas- 
sages just now quoted. We may 
conclude from what has been said, 
that apiastrum was a name which 
the Romans had formed in imitation 
of fts?\.ia-c-o(pvX?iov, both names sig- 
nifying the bee-herb. May has 
translated it millfoile, which is the 
English name of millefolium or 
yarrow; but this cannot be the 
plant intended. Addison also trans- 
lates it milfoil. Dryden has used a 
word which I have not seen else- 
where, melfoil; but it is a very just 
translation of fiiXi<pvX>.ov. Dr. Trapp 
has rightly rendered it baum. 

Cerinth(B ignobile gra7nen.'] The 
name of this plant is derived from 
KYi^iov, a honey-comb, because the 
flower abounds with a sweet juice, 
like honey. La Cerda says we may 
see how this herb delights the bees, 
in Aristotle, lib. 9, Hist. But what 
the philosopher has there said does 
not appear to me to be concerning 
the plant cerinthe, but to relate to 
the erithace, spoken of already in 
the note on ver. 38. He says they 
have, besides their honey, another 



sort of food which some call cerin- 
thum, which is not so good, and 
has a sweetness like that of a fig : 

"Ea-ri §S ecvrctiq Koct ecXXl) r^o^it, ^* ««- 
Xova-i rtvsg Jt^go^ey j gVr; ^6 rovTO vrrohti- 
a-Ti^ov, Kut yXvKvri/iTC6 o-vKa^n 'i%ot. Now 
Pliny assures us that the cerinthum, 
which he says is also called sanda- 
raca, is the same with the erithace; 
" Praeter haec convehitur erithace, 
*' quam aliqui sandaracam, alii ce- 
" rinthum vocant." Aristotle also 
mentions sandaraca in such a man- 
ner, that we may imagine it to be the 
same with that which he had before 
spoken of under the name of cerin- 
thum : for he says it is a substance 
approaching in hardness to wax, 
and serves the bees ^or food : Tgo(pji 
^l ^^mreu fcsXirt kou 6i^ovi kxi yju^ 
fAUfo;. Tihtreu ^\ Kett ecXXiif r^c^ni Ifc- 
<Pi^ rS x)}g« r*iv a-KXn^oT:]TX, 7}f evofid- 
Zfiva-i ttvig <rxt2x^etKnv. Thus we see 
that the cerinthum or sandaraca of 
Aristotle is not the name of an 
herb, as La Cerda and others have 
imagined j but of a substance col- 
lected by the bees, to serve them 
for sustenance. Cerinthe however 
is certainly the name of an herb, 
which grows common in Italy, 
whence the Poet calls it ignobile 
gramen. Theophrastus says no 
more of it, than that it flowers in 
summer. Dioscorides does not 
mention it. But Pliny has given 
us a description of it. He says it 
is a cubit high, its leaf white and 
bending, its head hollow, and 
abounding with a juice like honey; 
and the bees are fond of its flower: 
" Est autem cerinthe folio candido, 
'' incurvo, cubitalis, capite concavo, 
** mellis succum habente. Horum 
'* floris avidissimae sunt." There 
are several species of cerinthe de- 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



357 



Ire iter, aut castris audebit vellere signa. 

Invitent croceis halantes floribus horti, 

Et custos furum atque avium cum falce sa- 

ligna 110 

Hellespontiaci serve t tutela Priapi. 
Ipse thymum pinosque ferens de montibus altis 
Tecta serat late circum, cui talia curae ; 
Ipse labore manum duro terat ; ipse feraces 
Figat humo plantas, et amicos irriget imbres. 115 
Atque equidem, extreme ni jam sub fine la- 

borum 



jonrnej', or move the standard 
from the camp. Let gardens 
breathing with safiron flowers 
invite them, and let the de- 
fence of Ilellespontiac Pri- 
apus, the guard of thieves and 
birds with his wooden sword 

E reserve them. Let him who 
as the care of bees bring 
thyme and pines from the 
lofty mountains, and make 
large plantations of them 
round the hives: let him 
harden his hand with labour, 
let him plant fruitful trees in 
theground,and bestow friendly 
showers upon them. And 
now indeed, were I not just 
striking sail toward the end of 
my labours, 



lation of the passage under con- 
sideration is very singular j 

The task is easy : but to clip the wings 
Of their high-flying arbitrary kings : 
At their command the people swarm 

away, 
Confine the tyrant, and the slaves will 

stay. 

108. Vellere signa^ In one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts it is tollere : 
but vellere signa was used by the 
Romans, to express the moving of 
their camp. For when they pitched 
their camp they struck their ensigns 
into the ground before the general's 
tent; and plucked them up, when 
they decamped. Thus in the ele- 
venth Mne'id : 

Ubi primum vellere signa 

Annuerint superi, pubemque educere 
castris. 

109. Croceis halantes floribus hor- 
ti.'] Saffron flowers seem to be put 
here for odorous flowers in general. 

In one of the Arundelian manu- 
scripts there is olentes instead of 
halantes. 

111. Hellespontiaci servet tutela 
Priapi."] The Poet does not mean 
that a statue of Priapus should be 
set up to defend the bees: but that 
they should be invited by such gar- 
dens, as may deserve to be under 
the protection of that deity. 



Priapus was worshipped princi- 
pally at Lampsacum, a city on the 
Hellespont. 

112. Thymum^ The thyme of 
the ancients is not our common 
thyme, but the thymus capitatus, 
qui Dioscoridis C. B. which now 
grows in great plenty upon the 
mountains in Greece. The Attic 
honey was accounted the best, be- 
cause of the excellence of this sort 
of thyme, which grows about 
Athens. Thus our Poet : 

Cecropiumque thymum. 

That also of Sicily was very fa- 
mous, to which Virgil also alludes 
in the seventh Eclogue : 

Nerine Galatea thyme mihi dulcior Hy- 
blae. 

This sort of thyme has a most 
fragrant smell and agreeable taste j 
whence the Poet justly ascribes the 
fragrance of honey to this plant : 

Redolentque thyme fragrantia 



mella. 

It is known among us under the 
name of the true thyme of the an- 
cients, 

Ferens.] In the King's manu- 
script it is/ere5. 

116. Atque equidem extremo, Sic] 



358 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and hastening to turn my 
prow to the shore, perhaps I 
might sing what care was 
required to cultivate rich gar- 
dens, and the roses of twice 
fertile Paestum: and how 
endive, and banks green with 
celery, delight in drinking the 
rills, 



Vela traham, et terris festinem advertere pro- 
ram; 
Forsitan et pingues hortos quae cura colendi 
Ornaret, canerem, biferique rosaria Paesti ; 
Quoque modo potis gauderent intuba rivis, 120 



The Poet having mentioned the 
advantage of gardens with respect 
to bees, takes occasion to speak of 
them cursorily ; but in such beau- 
tiful terms, that every reader must 
wish that Virgil had expatiated on 
this subject. 

117. Vela traham, &c.] A meta- 
phor taken from sailing, as in the 
first Georgickj 

Ades et primi lege littoris oram : 

And 

— — pelagoque volans da vela patenti. 

118. Pingues hortos.'] It will not 
perhaps be disagreeable to the 
reader, if in this place I make some 
little enquiry into the gardens of 
the ancients. Those of the Hes- 
perides, those of Adonis, Alcinous, 
Semiramis, and Cyrus, have been 
celebrated with large praises. We 
may easily apprehend, what sort of 
gardens the most magnificent ones 
of ancient Greece were, by the de- 
scription which Homer has left us 
of that of Alcinous. The whole 
garden was of no larger extent 
than four acres: and yet it is called 
by Homer a large garden or or- 
chard : 

'EKVoirhv V avXris fciyas o^^^arog oiy^t 
Tir^ayvos. 

Our English word orchard, or per- 
haps rather, as Milton writes it, 
orchat, seems to be derived from 
the Greek word o^^'^rog, which 
Homer here uses to express the 
garden cf Alcinous ; and indeed it 



seems rather to have been an or- 
chard than what we call a garden. 
It consisted of pears, apples, pome- 
granates, figs, olives, and vines. 
Round these were beds of herbs 
and flowers, and the whole was 
fenced in with a hedge. The gar- 
den which Laertes cultivated with 
his own royal hands, seems to 
have been much of the same sort. 
The Romans seem to have pro- 
ceeded much farther in their taste 
of gardening in Virgil's time. We 
here find not only fruit-trees, and 
roses, lilies, and daflfodils, with 
some pot-herbs ; but also rows of 
elms and planes for shade. Colu- 
mella speaks of inclosing thena 
with walls as well as with hedges : 
and a few years afterwards, we find 
them arrived to a degree of magni- 
ficence, equal to the finest modern 
gardens : as the reader may see in 
the fifth book of the Epistles of the 
younger Pliny. 

119. Biferique rosaria Pcesii.'] 
" Paestum is a town of Calabria, 
" where the roses blow twice in a 
" year." Servius. 

120. Quoque modo potis gauderent 
iniiiba rivis.] Pierius says this verse 
is read differently in the Lombard 
manuscript: 

Quoque modo positis gauderent intyba 
fibris. 

The plant which Virgil means in 
this place is endive, that being the 
name of the garden «§<?, whereas 
the wild sort is our succory. See 
the note on book i. ver. 120. 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



359 



Et virides apio ripae, tortusque per herbam 
Cresceret in ventrem cucumis : nee sera coman- 
tem 



and how the cucumber creep- 
ing along the gras8 swells into 
a belly : 



nor would I have 



121. Virides apio ripce.'] Apium 
is allowed by all to be the Latin 
name for what the Greeks called 
aixmv. Theophrastus speaks of se- 
veral sorts : the a-ixmv ifAi^ov, which 
is generally thought to be our com- 
mon parsley ; the h-^rotnXmv, which 
seems to be what we call Alexan- 
ders ; the IxuocrzXtvov, which is what 
we call smallage -, and the hgioa-ixmv, 
or mountain parsley. Virgil is ge- 
nerally thought by apium to mean 
the first sort, that being principally 
cultivated in gardens. But I ra- 
ther believe he means the smallage, 
of which an agreeable sort has been 
brought from Italy under the name 
of celeri, and is now cultivated al- 
most every where. The smallage 
or celeri delights in the banks of 
rivulets, and therefore our Poet says 
virides apio ripce, and potis gaude- 
rent rivis. Columella must also 
mean the same herb under the name 
ofapiunij without any epithet, when 
he says it delights in. water, and 
should be placed near a spring : 
*' Apium quoque possis plantis se- 
" rere, nee minus semine, sed prae- 
" cipue aqua laetatur, et ideo secun- 
" dum fontem commodissime poni- 
'' tur." Apium is thought to be 
derived from apes, because bees are 
fond of that plant. 

Tortusque per herbam cresceret in 
ventrem cucumis.^ In the King*s 
manuscript, and in the old Paris 
edition, printed in 1494, it is herbas, 
instead of herbam. 

The Poet gives a beautiful de- 
scription of the cucumber in a few 
words. The winding of the stalk 
along the ground, and the swelling 
of the fruit, excellently distinguish 
these plants. 



122. Sera comantem narcissum.'] 
Sera is here put adverbially, which 
is frequent in Virgil. Pierius how- 
ever found sera in the Lombard 
and Medicean manuscripts : I find 
the same reading in the King's, the 
Bodleian, and in one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts. 

We have no reason to doubt, but 
that the narcissus of the ancients is 
some species of that which we now 
call narcissus or daffodil. Theo- 
phrastus says it has its leaves spread 
on the ground like the asphodel, 
but broader, like those of lilies : its 
stalk is void of leaves, and bears 
at the top a herbaceous flower, and 
a large dark coloured fruit inclosed 
in a membranaceous vessel of an 
oblong figure. This fruit falling 
down sprouts spontaneously, though 
some gather it for sowing. The 
roots also are planted, which are 
large, round, and fleshy. It flowers 
very late after the rising of Arctu- 
rns, and about the vernal equinox ; 
di Nd^xio-a-og, « to Xg/g<oV oi (aIv yu^ 

TOVTO, 61 ^' iKiTvO KXXoVTl. TO fAiV i-rt T^ 

Ti TToT^v, icoc6u.7n^ Ji xg;»«wo6. rev ^s 
xetvXh u^vXXov f*lv, 'TFoas^n ^8, ««»/ ^l 
UK^ov TO a.v6o(;' Kett h vfAZVi rivt kxScctts^ 
ev uyyileo KctpTrhv f^iyetv iv tcetXx Koii (Al- 
y^ecvoc rvj X^oiS, tr^^fisiTi oi TT^o^iiKti, 
ovrog ^' hcTTiTFTm Traiii ^xdcrrv^a-tv atvro- 
(Aotrov, ov f*lv uX)\cc xxt <rvXMyovrs§ 
TTviyvvova-i , koc] rliv pi^otv (pvT6Vovcriv. ij(fit 
pt^civ tyet^xai^vi, ^-goyyvAijv, jKgyasAjjv. o^^iov 
di ff-^id^ec. fisrei yu^ 'A^ktcv^ov k»vh<ri?f 
icxt TFt^t ttm^i^tecv. Discorides says 
it has leaves like those of the leek, 
but smaller and narrower : the stalk 
is hollow, without leaves, above a 
span high, supporting a white 
flower, which is yellow on the in- 



360 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



?oTel7dUSdu%Mhe stiikl Narcissuni, aut flexi tacuissem vimen axjantbi, 

of the bending acanthus. 



side, and sometimes purple j the 
root is white, round, and bulbous. 
The fruit is in a membranaceous 
vessel, dark-coloured and long. 
The best sort grows in mountainous 
places, of a good smell, the others 
have a smell of leeks: NagK«r(r6$* 
giioi x.eti Tovro a^ yri^t rh tc^lvov Mi^iov 
SKxXia-ecv. rci f^tv (pbhXx ^rgoio-a iotKV 
Xsjrrec, di kcci ftiK^on^x kxto, ttcXv, xxt 

O-Tl^XfMii. \(P' OV «iv^O? XiVKOV. 6(r6ihf dl 

(pifiTXt xdXXKTToq h o^etvoT^ tottcis, iva- 
^nii ^e XotTTCi TT^xa-i^u. Pliny says 
the narcissus is a sort of purple 
lily, with a white flower, and a 
purple cup : it differs from lilies, in 
that its leaves come from the root : 
the best sort grows in the moun- 
tains of Lycia. There is another 
sort with a herbaceous cup. All 
of them flower late ; namely, after 
the rising of Arcturus, and about 
the autumnal equinox : *' Sunt et 
" purpurea lilia, aliquando gemino 
" caule, carnosiore tantum radice, 
*^ majorisquebulbi,sedunius. Nar- 
" cissum vocant hujus alterum ge- 
" nus flore candido, calyce purpu- 
" reo. Differentia a liliis est et 
" haec, quod narcissis folia in radice 
" sunt, probatissimis in Lyciae mon- 
" tibus. Tertio generi caetera ea- 
•' dem, calyx herbaceus. Omnes 
" serotini. Post Arcturum enim 
'' fiorent, ac per aequinoctium au- 
" tumnum." And in another place 
he says, there are two sorts of nar- 
cissus used in medicine ; one with 
a purple, and the other with a her- 
baceous flower : '^ Narcissi duo ge- 
" nera in usu Medici recipiunt, 
" unum purpureo flore, et alterum 
'' herbaceura." From what these 
ancient authors have said, we may 



gather a pretty good description of 
their narcissus. The roots are large, 
round, and fleshy, according to 
Theophrastus ; white, round, and 
bulbous, according to Dioscorides. 
They all agree, that the leaves pro- 
ceed from the root, and that the 
stalk is naked. According to Theo- 
phrastus, the leaves are like those 
of Asphodel ; according to Dios- 
corides, like those of leeks, but 
smaller and narrower, in which they 
agree very well. The flower, ac- 
cording to Theophrastus, is green- 
ish, according to Dioscorides white, 
and either yellow or purple within ; 
according to Pliny, it is white, with 
either a purple or greenish cup. 
What Dioscorides calls the inside, 
is what Pliny calls the cup ; for the 
flowers of the daffodil form a cup 
in the middle, which is sometimes 
different, sometimes of the same 
colour with the rest of the flower. 
The fruit, according to both the 
Greek authors, is membranaceous, 
long, and of a dark colour. Hence 
we may be sure, that some species 
of our daffodil is the narcissus of 
the ancients : and probably the nar- 
cissus albus circulo purpureo C. B. 
and the narcissus albus circulo era- 
ceo minor C. B. may be the two 
sorts. The last of these seems to 
be the flower, into which the youth 
Narcissus was changed, according 
to Ovid : 

Croceum pro corpore florem 

Inveniunt, foliis medium cingentibus 
albis. 

There seems to be but one difficulty 
attending this determination : the 
species of daffodil known among us 
flower early in the spring, and sel- 
dom later than in May; whereas 
Theophrastus, Virgil, and Pliny, 
place their season in September. 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



361 



Pallentesque hederas, et amantes littora myrtos. 



or llie pale ivy, or llie rpyrtles 
that love the shores. 



But to this it may be answered, 
that in Greece, these flowers may 
appear much later in the year. Bus- 
bequius says he was presented with 
daffodils near Constantinople in 
December ; and that Greece 
abounds with hyacinths and daffo- 
dils of a wonderful fragrance : 
" Unum diem Hadrianopoli com- 
*' morati progredimur Constantino- 
" polim versus jam propinquam, 
" veluti extremum nostri itineris 
" actum eonfecturi. Per haec ioca 
" transeuntibus ingens ubique flo- 
" rum copia offerebatur, Narcisso- 
*•' rum, Hyacinthorum et eorum 
" quas Turcae Tulipam vocant : 
^' non sine magna admiratione nos- 
" tra, propter anni tempus, media 
" plane hieme, floribus aiinime 
'' amicum. Narcissis et Hyacinthis 
" abundat Graecia miro fragrantibus 
*' odore." Tournefort found the 
yellow daffodil common on the 
banks of the Granicus, in Decem- 
ber, and another sort about the 
same time, near Ephesus. 

123. Flexi vimen acanthi.^ I have 
already mentioned the acanthus, in 
the note on book ii. ver. II9. It 
has been there observed that there 
are two sorts of acanthus : one an 
Egyptian tree, and the other a gar- 
den herb, which the Poet means in 
this place. The acanthus of Theo- 
phrastus is the Egyptian tree, of 
which we have spoken already. 
The herb acanthus is described by 
Dioscorides. He says the leaves 
are much longer and broader than 
those of lettuce, divided like rocket, 
blackish, fat, and smooth: the stalk 
is two cubits high, of the thickness 
of one's finger, smooth, encom- 
passed near the top at certain dis- 
tances with long, prickly leaves, 
out of which proceeds a white 
flower : the seed is long and yellow : 



the roots arc long, mucous, red, and 
jOrlufinous : "AxtivGw « i^7rclKxv6cc' 01 

TTOXP^S KXt f^OlKpOTi^CC 6^tOXX.0rj ir^lT- 

f/iioc ooq la rov iv^cof^ov, VTrofAiXxvoc, Xt- 
TTSi^ai, Xi7x' kxvXqv mIov, dlTT/i^VV, -z-ct- 
Y/>^ 2cixTvX6v Ik 2iX(rrYi^u,UT6jy tt^o^ tJi xo- 
gy(p}j -TTi^niX'/tf.iuivov <pvX>6t^ieig TiTtv, 
otovii KtTTotpioig, vTrofit^Kia-iv y UKXv6aot<riy' 
l| cov TO uidog TT^mrxi XtvKOv cnrkg^^ce, 
VTTOfZYiKig, fiK}iivov. 6v^(roiioi)5 ^£ ^ M- 

^g<j, ifATTv^oi, fixK^xl. The acantha 
of Dioscorides is generally allowed 
to be that plant which is cultivated 
in gardens, under the name of 
acanthus sativus or hrank-ursine. 
Most botanists also are of opinion, 
that it is the acanthus of Virgil : 
but the chief difficulty is, to shew 
the reason, why he calls it flexi vi- 
men acanthi. These words seem to 
express a twining plant. I believe 
we must entirely depend upon a 
passage of Vitruvius, for the solu- 
tion of this difficulty. This famous 
author tells us, that a basket co- 
vered with a tile having been acci- 
dentally placed on the ground over 
a root of acanthus, the stalks and 
leaves burst forth in the spring, 
and spreading themselves on the 
outside of the basket, were bent 
back again at the top, by the cor- 
ners of the tile. Callimachus, a fa- 
mous architect, happening to pass 
by, was delighted with the novelty 
and beauty of this appearance, and 
being to make some pillars at Co- 
rinth, imitated the form of this 
basket surrounded with acanthus, 
in the capitals. It is certain that 
there cannot be a more lively image 
of the capital of a Corinthian pillar, 
than a basket covered with a tile, 
and surrounded bv leaves of brack- 
3 a 



362 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



For I remember that under 
the lofty towers of (Ebalia, 
where black Galesus moistens 
the yellow fields, I saw an old 
Corycian who had a few 



Namque subCEbaliaememinime turribusaltis 125 
Qua niger humectat flaventia culta Galesus 
Corycium vidisse senem : cui pauca relicti 



ursine, bending outward at the top. 
To this "Virgil may allude in the 
words now under consideration. 
But then we must not translate 
them with Dryden, 

The winding trail 



Of bear's foot, 

for it is by no means a trailing 
plant. 

124. Pnllentesque hederas7\ In 
some of the old editions it is pallen- 
tes without que. See the note on 
book ii. ver. 258. 

Amantes littora myrtos.'] Myrtles 
delight in growing near the sea- 
shore. Thus in the second Geor- 
gick: 

Littora myrtetis laetissima. 

125. (Ebalice.'] " (Ebalia is La- 
" conia, whence Castor and Pollux 
'' are called by Statins (Ebalidoe 
'^ Fratres." Servius. 

The Poet means Tarentum by the 
lofty towers of (Ebalia, because a 
colony from Laconia, under the con- 
duct of Phalantus,cameto Calabria 
and augmented the city of Taren- 
tum. 

19,6. Niger.'] Schrevelius, follow- 
ing Erythraeus, reads piger. 

Galesus,] Galesus is a river of Ca- 
labria, which flows near Tarentum. 

127. Corycium.] Some think that 
Corycius is the name of the old man 
here spoken of. But it seems more 
probable, that it is the name of his 
country : for Corycus is the name 
of a mountain and city of Cilicia. 
Pompey had made war on the Ci- 
licians, of which people some being 
received into friendship, were 
brought by him, and planted in 
Calabria, about Tarentum. Virgil's 



old man may therefore reasonably 
be supposed to be one of Pompey's 
Cilicians, who had these few acres 
given him near Tarentum, and per- 
haps improved the culture of gar- 
dens in Italy, from the knowledge 
he had obtained in his own country. 
127. Relicti.] Servius interprets 
this word forsaken and contemptible ^ 
which interpretation he confirms by 
observing that no land could be 
more contemptible, than that which 
is fit neither for wines, corn, nor 
pasture. Thus also Grimoaldus 
paraphrases it, '^ cui rus erat par- 
'' vum atque desertum." La Cerda 
contends that it means hereditary, 
observing that relinquere is a word 
used in making wills, and confirms 
this interpretation by a passage in 
Varro, which he thinks the Poet 
here designs to imitate. That au- 
thor speaking of two brothers, who 
had a small farm left them by their 
father, uses the word relicta. Ruaeus 
however renders it deserti. May 
also follows Servuus: 

Few akers of neglected ground undrest. 

Addison also translates it, 

A few Jiegkcted acres. 

Dryden is of the same opinion, 
Lord of few acres, and those barren too. 

Dr. Trapp follows La Cerda, 
A few hereditary acres : 

" Left him," says he, '' by his rela- 
'* tions. This adds much to the 
'^ grace of the narrative. The little 
'' land he had, and which he so 
'' improved, was his own : he paid 
'^ no rent for it." This interpreta- 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



sm 



Jugera ruris erant ; nee fertilis ilia juvencis. 



acres of forsaken ground ; nor 

was his land rich enough for 

. J the plough, nor good for pas- 

Nec pecori opportuna seges> nee commoda ture, jn^o'"^,i|r'jp^^r 'or wines 

Baecho. 
Hie rarum tamen in dumis olus, albaque eir- 

eum 130 



Yet he plantnig a few pot- 
herbs among the bushes, and 
white 



tion has its beauty, but I believe 
it is not Virgil's meaning. The old 
Corycian, being one of the Cilicians 
settled in Calabria by Pompey, his 
land there could not be hereditary. 
Nor could the person here spoken 
of be the son of one of those Cili- 
cians, born in Calabria, because he 
calls him an old man. Those peo- 
ple had not been brought over 
above forty years, when Virgil viras 
writing his Georgicks, and not quite 
fifty years, when the Poet died. 
And he speaks of his seeing this 
old man, as of a thing that had 
passed long ago. We must there- 
fore, with Servius, translate relicti^ 
forsaken. The land was neither fit 
for vineyards, corn, nor pasture, 
and therefore the Calabrians neg- 
lected it. But this old man knew 
how to make use of it, by con- 
verting it into a garden, and apiary. 
Virgil therefore shews the Romans, 
that a piece of land might be fit 
neither for corn, which is the subject 
of his first book, nor vines, of which 
he treats in his second, nor cattle, 
which take up the third ; and yet 
that by the example of this foreigner, 
they might know how to cultivate 
it to advantage. 

129. Seges.'] See the note on 
book ii. ver. 266. 

130. Hie.'] Pierius says it is hinc 
in the Lombard manuscript. 

In dumis.'] Ruaeus, and after him 
Dr. Trapp, think in dumis is put 
for in loco prius dumoso. 

Albaque circum lilia.] The white 
lilies are those, which were most 
celebrated and best known among 
the ancients. Theophrastus speaks 



of red lilies only by hearsay : E'/ttej 

Thus our Poet celebrates them here 
for their whiteness, and also in the 
twelfth ^neid : 

— — Mixta rubent ubi lilia multa 
Alba rosa. 

In the tenth Eclogue he mentions 
tlie largeness of lilies : 

Florentes ferulas et grandia lilia. quas- 
sans. 

This may be meant either of the 
flower, which is very large, or of 
the whole plant, which, according 
to Pliny, exceeds all other flowers 
in tallness : " Nee ulli florum ex- 
" celsitas major, interdum cubito- 
" rum trium." This author has 
given an excellent description of 
the white lily, in the words imme- 
diately following. He says the neck 
is always languid, and unable to 
sustain the weight of the body, 
which elegantly describes the bend- 
ing down of the flower. It is of 
a remarkable whiteness, the leaves 
[that is, the petals] being streaked 
on the outside, growing gradually 
broader from a narrow origin, in 
form of a cup, of which the brims 
bend outward, having slender 
threads, and saffron summits In the 
middle : '^ Languido semper collo, 
" et non sufficiente capitis oneri. 
*' Candor ejus eximius, foliis foris 
" striatis, et ab angustiis in latitu- 
" dinem paulatim sese laxantibus, 
'^ effigie calathi, resupinis per am- 
" bitum labris, tenuique filo et 
'^ semine, stantibus in medio crocis. 
" Ita odor colorque duplex, et alius 
3a2 



su 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



vS and"eicaient poppiesr'" Lilia, vcrbenasque premens, vescumque papaver. 



" calycis, alius staminis, diJBferentia 
" angusta." By crocis I take this 
author to mean the yellow apices or 
summits ; and by tenui Jilo et sem'ine 
perhaps he means the stile and 
ovary. The lilies were planted by 
the old Corycian for the sake of his 
bees: for Pliny mentions them 
among the flowers in which those 
insects delight ; " Verum hortis 
*^ coronaraentisque maxime alvearia 
'' et apes conveniunt, res praecipui 
'' quaestus compendiique cum favit. 
" Harum ergo causa oportet serere 
*' thymum, apiastrum, rosam, vio- 
*' las, lilium." Virgil also speaks 
of them in the sixth ^neid, as 
being the delight of bees: 

Ac veluti in pratis, ubi apes aestate 

Serena 
Floribus insidunt variis, et Candida cir- 

cum 
Lilia funduntur. 

Thick as the humming bees, that hunt the 

golden dew ; 
In summer'' s heat on tops of lilies feed. 
And creep •within their bells, to suck the 

balmy seed. 

Dryden. 

131. Verbe?ias.'] The Verbena, 
from whence our English name 
Vervain is derived, was a sacred 
herb among the Romans. We read 
in the first book of Livy how this 
herb was used in the most ancient 
league, of which the memory was 
preserved among them: that be- 
tween TuUus Hostilius, the third 
king of Rome, and the Albans. 
The form was this : The Fetialis 
said to Tullus, Do you command me, 
O king, to strike a league with the 
Pater patratus of the people of Alha? 
when the King had commanded 
him, he proceeded thus, O King, I 
demand the Sagmina of you. The 
King answered, Take it pure. Then 
the Fetialis brought the pure herb 



from the tower Tlie Fetialis 

was M. Valerius, and he appointed 
Sp. Fusius to be the Fater patratus, 
touching his head and hair with the 
Vervain : ^' Foedera alia aliis legi- 
" bus, caeterum eodem modo omnia 
*' fiunt. Turn ita factum accepi- 
" mus : nee uUius vetustior foederis 
*' memoria est. Fetialis regem 
" TuUum ita rogavit : Jubesne me 
'^ rex cum patre patrato populi Albani 
" fosdus ferire P jubente rege, Sag- 
" mina, inquit, te, rex, posco. Rex 
" ait, Puram tollito. Fetialis ex arce 
" graminis herbam puram attulit. 
" . . . . Fetialis erat M. Valerius, is 
" patrem patratum Sp. Fusium fecit, 
'^ verbena caput capillosque tan- 
'' gens." Pliny says expressly, that 
by sagmina and verbena were meant 
the same thing, namely, the herb 
from the tower, plucked up with 
its earth ; and that it was used by 
the ambassadors, when they were 
sent to reclaim any thing that had 
been carried away by the enemies ; 
and that one of tiiem was therefore 
called Verbenarius : " Interim for- 
** tiusaugeturautoritas : quae quanta 
*' debeatur etiam surdis, hoc est 
" ignobilibus herbis perhibebitur. 
" Siquidem autores imperii Romani 
" conditoresque immensum quid- 
'' dam et hinc sumpsere, quoniam 
'' non aliunde sagmina in remediis 
" publicis fuere, et in sacris legati- 
" onibusque verbense. Certe utro- 
'* que nomine idem significatur, hoc 
" est, gramen ex arce cum sua terra 
*' evulsum : ac semper et legati 
" cum ad hostes clarigatumque mit- 
" terentur, id est, res raptas clare 
" repetitum, unus utique Verbena- 
" rius vocabatur." In another place 
he calls it Hierahotane, Feristereon, 
and Verbenaca ,• and there adds, that 
it was used in brushing the table of 
Jupiter, and in purifying houses. 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



365 



Regum aequabat opes animis ; seraque revertens 
Nocte domum, dapibus mensas onerabat in- 

emptis. 
Primus vere rosam,atque auturano carperepoma; 
Et cum tristis hyems etiamnum frigore saxa 135 
Rumperet, et glacie cursus fraenaret aquarum, 



equalled in \m mind the 
■wealth of kings : and return- 
ing home late at night, loaded 
his table with unboiight dain- 
ties. He was the first to ga- 
ther roses in the spring, and 
fruits in autumn: aii<l when 
sad winter even split the rocks 
with cold, and with ice re- 
strained the course of the ri- 
vers. 



He says there are two sorts of it, 
one full of leaves, which is called 
the female, and the male with 
fewer leaves. The branches of both 
are'many, slender, a cubit long, and 
angular. The leaves are like those 
of the oak, but smaller, narrower, 
and more deeply divided. The 
flower is glaucous. The root long 
and slender. It grows in watery 
places. Some do not distinguish 
them, reckoning only one sort, be- 
cause both of them have the same 
effects: " Nulla taraen Romanse no- 
" bilitatis plus habet quam Hiera- 
*' botane. Aliqui Peristereon, nos- 
" tri Verbenacam vocant. Haec est 
*' quam legates ferre ad hostes in- 
" dicavimus. Hac Jovis mensa 
'' verritur, domus purgantur, lus- 
" tranturque. Genera ejus duo 
" sunt : foJiosa, quam foeminam 
*' putant: mas rarioribusfoliis. Ra- 
" muli utriusque plures, tenues, 
" cubi tales, angulosi. Folia minora 
'' quam Quercus, angustioraque, di- 
*' visuris majoribus, flos glaucus, 
" radix longa, tenuis. Nascitur ubi- 
*^ que in planis aquosis. Quidam 
*' non distinguunt, sed unum om- 
" nino genus faciunt, quoniam utra- 
" que eosdem efiFectus habeat." The 
vervain was used in incantations, 
to which the Poet alludes in the 
eighth Eclogue : 

Effer aquam, et molli cinge haec altaria 

vitta : 
Verlenasque adole pingues, et mascula 

thura. 

It was thought to be good against 
serpents and venomous bites, and 



was recommended as a sovereign 
medicine for a great variety of dis- 
eases. 

131. Premens^ It has been ob- 
served in the note on book ii. ver. 
346. that virgulta premere properly 
signifies the increasing of a plant 
by layers. But here premens must 
be understood of planting in general. 
Dryden seems to understand it 
bruising. 

Yet lab'ring well his little spot of ground. 
Some scatt'ring pot-herbs here and there 

he found. 
Which cultivated with his daily care, 
And bruised with vervain, were his fru- 
gal fare. 
Sometimes white lilies did their leaves 

afford, 
With wholesome poppy-flowers, to mend 
his homely board. 

This whole passage is erroneously 
translated 5 for the Poet does not 
speak of bruising vervain, but of 
planting it. The vervain and lilies 
do not seem to have been planted 
for pot-herbs, but the vervain for 
medicinal uses, and the lilies for 
the bees : nor were the lilies planted 
for the sake of their leaves, but of 
their flowers. The poppies also 
were not planted for their flowers, 
but for their seeds. 

Vescumque papaver.'] See the 
notes on book i. ver. 78 and 212. 

135. Etiamnum.'] The common 
reading is etiam nunc. I follow 
Heinsius. 

" In some manuscripts it is eiiam- 
" num, which word is frequently 
**^ used by Pliny 5 from the Greek 

" ht Kett VVV." PlERIUS. 



366 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



in that very season he could 
crop the soft acanthus, accus- 
ing the slow summer, and the 
loitering zephyrs. He there- 
fore was the first to abound 
with pregnant bees, and plen- 
tiful swarms; and to squeeze 
the frothing honey from the 
combs: he had limes and 
plenty of pines; and as many 
fruits as shewed themselves 
in early blossom, so many did 
he gather ripe in autumn. 
He also transplanted into rows 
the fai^grown elms, 



lUe comam mollis jam tum tondebat acanthi, 
^^statem increpitans seram, zephyrosque mo- 

rantes. 
Ergo apibus foetis idem atque examine multo 
Primus abundare, et spumantia cogere pressis 140 
Mella favis : illi tiliae, atque uberrima pinus ; 
Quotque in flore novo pomis se fertilis arbos 
Induerat, totidem autumno matura tenebat. 
lUe etiam seras in versum distulit ulmos. 



137. Ills comam mollis Jam tum 
tondebat acanthi.'] " Achilles Sta- 
'• tius observes, that this verse is 
*' read in all the ancient manuscripts 
" of Virgil thus : 

" Ille comam mollis jam tondehat Hy- 
" acinihi. 

'' And the like number, that is, a 
" short syllable being made long, 
*\ after the fourth foot, is used by 
"Virgil himself, in the sixth 
*' Eclogue : 

" MolUfultus Hyacintho: 

" and by Catullus : 

" Jam veniet virgo, jayn dicetur HymC' 
" ncBUs: 

"and 

" Turn Thetis humanos non despexlt Hy- 
" mencEOSt** 

La Ceeda. 

I have not met with this reading 
in any of the manuscripts that I 
have collated. Addison translates 
this verse ; 

He then would prune the tend'rest of his 
trees. 

But the acanthus here spoken of is 
an herb, and by comam is meant 
the leaves. The epithet mollis is 
added, to express the softness and 
tendertiess of these leaves. Thus 



also this herb is called by Theo- 
critos yygoj "AkccvSo?. Or it may 
serve to distinguish this acanthus 
from another species, which grows 
wild, and has very prickly leaves. 

139. Ergo apibus fceiis.'] The 
Poet always takes care in his di- 
gressions, not to forget the principal 
subject. Therefore he mentions in 
this place the benefits, which ac- 
crued to the old Corycian, from this 
extraordinary care of his garden, 
with regard to his bees. 

141. Tilios.'] Columella says 
limes are hurtful to bees: '* At 
" Tiliae solse ex omnibus sunt no- 
'' centes." 

Pinus.'] Columella also men- 
tions the pine, as agreeable to bees : 
" Post hsec frequens sit increment! 
" majoris surculus, et rosmarinus, 
" et utraque cythisus. Est enim 
" sativa, et altera suae spontis, item- 
'^ que semper virens Pinus." 

144. Ille etiam, he] Most of the 
commentators and translators seem 
not to have rightly apprehended the 
meaning of this passage. The Poet 
plainly designs to express the great 
skill of his old acquaintance, in re- 
moving large trees. Every one of 
the trees here mentioned has an 
epithet added to it, to signify its 
being well grown. The elms are 
called seroB, that is, late, old, or far 
grown: the pears are called hard; 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



367 



Eduramque pyrum, et spinos jam pruna feren- fhoms'^wL "Zy^ weVe Me 

t A f *° '"^'*'' P'li'^s, and the plane- 

teS, I'xO t'ee when it spread a shade 

' over those who drank under 

Jamque ministrantem platanum potantibus uin- "* 
bras. 



the thorns are said to be already 
bearing plums; and the planes are 
expressly said to be already so large, 
as to spread a shade, sufficient to 
cover those who sit under them. 
May seems to have understood the 
Poet's meaning: 

He could to order old grown elms trans- 
pose. 

Old peare trees hard, and black thorne 
bearing sloes, 

The plaine tree too, that drinking shade 
be'Jtowes. 

Dr. Trapp's translation is not very 
deficient: 

He too in ranks dispos'd the late grown 

elms. 
And the hard pear-tree, and the plum 

ev'n then 
Laden with fruitage ; and the plane 

which yields 
To Bacchus' sons its hospitable shade. 

But Addison has quite lost the sense 
of his author: 

In rows his elms and knotty pear-trees 
bloom. 

And thorns ennobled now to bear a 
plum ; 

And spreading plane-trees, where su- 
pinely laid 

He now enjoys the cool and quaffs be- 
neath the shade : 

And Dryden : 

He knew to rank his elms in even rows ; 
For fruit the grafted pear-tree to dispose: 
And tame to plums the sourness of 

the sloes. 
With spreading planes he made a cool 

retreat, 
To shade good fellows from the summer's 

heat. 

145. Eduram.'] See the note on 
book ii. ver. 65. 



Spinos jam pruna ferentes.] " The 
^' plum-tree is called spinus, in the 
'' masculine gender; for thorns 
" [senies^ are called hce spina.'* 
Servius. 

I have translated spinos in this 
place thorns, because the plum is 
a thorny tree : and because our wild 
sort, which bears the sloes, is called 
the black thorn. 

146. Platanum.] See the note 
on book ii. ver. 70. 

Umbras.'] Schrevelius, Paul Ste- 
phens, and some others, read urn- 
bram. Pierius found umbras in all 
the ancient manuscripts. It is um- 
bras in all those which I have 
collated. 

Before we leave these verses, 
wherein the Poet speaks of trans- 
planting great trees, it may not be 
improper to set down what our 
famous Evelyn has said on this 
subject. 

" A great person in Devon plant- 
'^ ed oaks as big as twelve oxen 
" could draw, to supply some de- 
" feet in an avenue to one of his 
*' houses : as the Right Honourable 
** the Lord Fitz-Harding, late Trea- 
" surer of his Majesty's Household, 
*^ assured me: who had himself 
*' likewise practised the removing of 
'^ great oaks by a particular address 
" extremely ingenious, and worthy 
" the communication. Choose a 
*' tree as big as your thigh, remove 
' ' the earth from about him j cut 
*' through all the collateral roots, 
" till with a competent strength 
*' you can enforce him down upon 
'' one side, so as to come with your 
• ' ax at the top root j cut that off, 
" redress your tree, and so let it 



368 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



fin"i/1n "o^nlE'row a^Tpace", VeruHi haec ipse cquidem spatiis exclusus iniquis 

I must pass over this subject, -r» , , ••.. , i t 

and leave it for others to treat I'raetereo, atoue aliis Dost Hie memoranda relm- 



after 



quo. 



'^ stand covered about with the 
" mould you loosened from it, till 
^' the next year, or longer if you 
" think good, then take it up at a 
" fit season ; it will likely have 
" drawn new tender roots apt to 
" take, and sufficient for the tree, 
" wheresoever you shall transplant 
'^' him. Some are for laying bare 
" the whole root, and then dividing 
*' it into four parts, in form of a 
*' cross, to cut away the interjacent 
*' rootlings, leaving only the cross 
*' and master-roots that were spared 
" to support the tree; and then 
'• covering the pit with fresh mould 
*' (as above) after a year or two 
*' when it has put forth, and fur- 
" nished the interstices you left 
" between the cross-roots with 
'' plenty of new fibres and tender 
'^ shoots, you may safely remove 
" the tree itself, so soon as you 
'' have loosened and reduced the 
" four decussated roots, and short- 
" ened the top roots ; and this ope- 
'* ration is done without stooping 
''or bending the tree at all: and 
'^ if in removing it with as much 
'' of the clod about the new roots 
" as possible, it would be much 
*' better." 

147. Equidem.'] In the King's 
manuscript, and in the old Nuren- 
berg edition, it is quidem. 

Exclusus.] It is disclusus in some 
old editions : but all the ancient 
manuscripts have exclusus. 

148. Aliisr\ Servius says the Poet 
means here Gargilius Martialis. 
This author is often quoted by Pal- 
ladius ; but I do not remember that 
he is mentioned by Columella. 
Hence I conclude, that he did not 



exist in the days of Virgil, and 
therefore could not be particularly 
meant by our Poet, unless he had 
the gift of prophecy, as some have 
imagined. Columella, in his tenth 
book, has endeavoured to supply, 
what Virgil has omitted, concern- 
ing gardening. His poem begins 
thus ; 

Hortorum quoque te cultus, Sylvine, 

docebo, 
Atque ea, quse quondam spatiis exclusus 

iniquis, 
CuHi caneret leetas segetes, et munera 

Bacchi, 
Virgilius nobis post se memoranda reli- 

quit. 

Among the moderns, Rapin, a 
learned Jesuit, has written a fine 
poem on gardens, in four books. 
He also professedly treads in the 
footsteps of Virgil: 

Vatibus ignotam nam me novus incitat 

ardor 
Ire viam, magno quss primum ostensa 

Maroni, 
Extremo cum vela trahens sub fine labo- 

rum, 
Italiae pingues hortos quae cura colendi 
Ornaret, canere agricolis, populoque pa- 

rabat. 
Fas mihi divini tantum vestigia vatis 
Posse sequi; summoque volans dum 

tendit Olympo, 
Sublimem aspicere, et longe observare 

tuendo. 

Post me memoranda.'] ''In some 
*' manuscripts it is post hcec memo- 
" randa : but the Lombard and 
" some others have post commemo- 
" randa. In the Medicean and some 
" others it is post me memoranda, 
" which reading seems to have been 
" admitted byColumella." Pierius. 

I find post memoranda in one of 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



369 



Nunc age, iiaturas apibus quas Jupiter ipse 
Addidit, expediam : pro qua mercede canoros 
Curetum sonitus crepitantiaque aera secutae, 151 
Dictaeo caeli regem pavere sub antro. 
Solae communes natos, consortia tecta 
Urbis habent, magnisque agitant sub legibus 
aevum; 



Now 1 shall proceed to shew 
what manners Jupiter has 
added to the bees; for what 
reward they, following the 
ioud sounds, and tinkling 
brass of the Ciuetes, fed the 
king of heaven under the 
Dictiean den. They alone 
have children in common, and 
the united buildings of a city, 
and pass their lives under 
established laws; 



the Arundelian manuscripts, post 
hcEc memoranda in one of Dr. Mead's, 
and po5< commemoranda in the Bod- 
leian, and in the other Arundelian 
and Dr.Mead's manuscripts. Ruaeus, 
and most of the editors, has post 
commemoranda. But it is post me 
memoranda in the King's, and in 
the Cambridge manuscripts, which 
reading is admitted also by Hein- 
sius, Paul Stephens, Masvicius, and 
others. 

149. Nunc age, &c.J Here the 
Poet begins to speak of the polity 
of the bees, by which all their 
actions contribute to the public 
good. He tells us in this passage, 
that Jupiter bestowed this extraor- 
dinary economical genius on the 
bees, as a reward for the service 
they did him, when an infant, 
by feeding him with their honey, 
in the cave where he was concealed 
from the devouring jaws of his 
father Saturn. 

150. Addidit. '\ This word ex- 
presses, that these manners did not 
originally belong to the bees, but 
were added by the favour of Ju- 
piter. 

Pro qua mercede,'] Servius inter- 
prets this, /or what favour or labour. 
La Cerda interprets mercede merit, 
because merces and mercor are de- 
rived from mereor. This interpre- 
tation, he says, is the only one that 
agrees with this passage, for the 
Poet is speaking of the merit;, by 
which the bees were admitted to 
assist the Curetes in nursing Ju- 



piter. But, as was just now ob- 
served, the Poet seems rather to 
mean, that he will speak of the 
reward which they had for their 
service. 

Canoros Curetum sonitus crepitan- 
tiaque cera."] According to the fable, 
Saturn intended to have devoured 
the infant Jupiter, to avoid which, 
he was concealed among the Cu- 
retes, the clangor of whose brasen 
armour and cymbals, as they danced, 
would drown his cries : thus Lucre- 
tius : 

Dictaeos referunt Curetas, qui Jovis iUungi 

Vagitum in Creta quondam occultasse 
feruntur. 

Cum pueri circum puerum pernice cho- 
rea 

Armati in numerum pulsarent seribus 
sera, 

Ne Saturnus eum malis mandaret adep- 
tus, 

-^ternumque daret matri sub pectore 
• vulnus. 

These represent those armed priests, who 

strove 
To drown the tender cries of infant Jove ; 
By dancing quick they made a greater 

sound. 
And 'beat their armour, as they danced 

around ; 
Lest Saturn should have found and eat the 

hoy. 
And Ops for ever mourned her prattling 

joy. 

Creech. 

152. Bictceo suh aniro.'\ 

Dicf.ce or Dictceus mons is a mountain 
of Crete, where Jupiter was said 
to be concealed. 

154. Magnisque agitant.'] In one 
3 B 



STO 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and they alone have a country 
of their own, and certain 
habitations : and bein^ mind- 
ful of the future winter, they 
labour in summer, and iaj' up 
what they get for the public 
use. For some are employed 
in getting food, and by agree- 
ment labour in the fields: 
some within the house lay 
tears of daffodils, and tough 
glue from the barks of trees, 
for the foundations of the 
combs; and then suspend the 
tenacious wax: others bring 
up the growing young, the 
hope of the nation : others 
work the purest honey, and 
distend their cells with liquid 
nectar. There are some to 
whose lot is fallen the guard- 
ing of the gates: and these 
by turns consider the waters 
and clouds of heaven, or un- 
lade the burdens of those who 
return, or forming a troop 



Et patriam solae et certos novere penates; 155 
Venturaeque hyemis memores, aestate laborem 
Experiuntur, et in medium quaesita reponunt. 
Namque aliae victu invigilant, et foedere pacto 
Exercentur agris : pars intra septa domorum 
Narcissi lacrymam, et lentum de cortice glu- 
ten 160 
Prima favis ponunt fundamina : deinde tenaces 
Suspendunt ceras : aliae spem gentis adultos 
Educunt foetus : aliae purissima mella 
Stipant, et liquido distendunt nectare cellas. 
Sunt, quibus ad portas cecidit custodia sorti: 165 
Inque vicem speculantur aquas, et nubila casli : 
Aut onera accipiunt venientum, aut agmine facto 



of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, and in 
some of the printed editions, it is 
magnis agiiani, without que. 

155. Et patriam sola et certos 7io- 
vera penates.'] " In some manu- 
'' scripts we read a patriam sola, et 
" certos novere penates. For a is 
" not always an interjection of la- 
" menting, but sometimes signifies 
*' admiration. But that a is written 
*^' without an aspiration has been 
*' elsewhere proved from Probus. 
" In the Lombard manuscript, there 
'' is no et in the second place ; but 
" it is read Et patriam solce certos 
" novere penates. But those who 
" take away et here, deprive the 
'* verse also of all its elegance." 

PlERIUS. 

156. Laborem.'] In one of the 
Arundelian manuscripts it is labores. 

157. In medium.] See the note 
on book i. ver. 127. 

158. Victu.] Victu is here put 
for v'ictui. 

Pacta.] In the King's manuscript 
it is parco. 



159 Intra.] In one of the Amn- 
delian manuscripts it is inter. 

Septal] In one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts it is tecla. 

160. Narcissi lacrymam~] I have 
spoken of the Narcissus, in the note 
on ver. 122. It has there been ob- 
served that the flowers of Narcissus 
or daffodil form a cup in the middle. 
These cups are supposed to contain 
the tears of the youth Narcissus, 
who wept to death. To this Milton 
alludes in his Lycidas j 

Eici Amaranthus all his beauty shed. 
And daffodillies fill their caps with tears. 
To strew the laureat herse where Lycid 
lies. 

Le?itum de cortice gluten.] Pierius 
found tectum in the Lombard and 
some other ancient manuscripts. 
The same reading is in the King's 
manuscript. 

165. Par las cecidit.] In one of 
the Arundelian manuscripts it is 
portani tendit. 

167. Aut onera accipiunt, &c.] 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



371 



Ignavum fucos pecus a praesepibiis arcent. 
Fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella. 
Ac veluti, lentis Cyclopes fulmina rnassis 170 
Cum properant, alii taurinis follibiis auras 
Accipiunt redduntque, alii stridentia tingunt 
-^ra lacu ; gemit impositis incudibus JEtna. 
Illi inter sese magna vi brachia toUunt 
In numerum, versantque tenaci forcipe fer- 
rum. 1 75 

Non aliter, si parva licet componere magnis, 



drive out the drones, a slog- 
gish race, from the hives. 
The work glows, and the 
fragrant honey is scented with 
thyme. As when the Cyclops 
hasten to form thunder-bolts 
out of the stubborn mass ; 
some receive the air and 
drive it out again from bellows 
made of bull hides: others 
plunge the hissing brass in 
water : -ffltna groans with the 
weight of their anvils. They 
lift their arms with great force 
in tuneful order ; and turn the 
iron with their griping tongs. 
Just so, if I may compare 
great things with small. 



This and the two following lines 
are repeated in the first ^neid. 

168. Ignavum fucos pecus a prce- 
sepibus arcent.^ The drones are a 
sort of bees without stings, which 
do not assist the others in their 
labour. On this account it is ge- 
nerally thought, that they are ex- 
pelled by the labouring bees. Some 
affirm that the drones are the 
males, and that, after the work of 
generation is over, they are driven 
from the hive by these amazons. 

Ruaeusrenders/Mcos, g-wes/>es; but 
I believe guespes signify wasps. The 
drones are called bourdons. 

In one of the Arundelian manu- 
scripts it is urgent instead of arcent. 

169. Thymo^ See the note on 
ver. 112. 

Fragrantia.'] Pierius found Jia- 
grantia in the Lombard manuscript. 
The same reading is in both Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts. 

170. Ac veluti, &c.] The Poet 
compares the labour of the bees to 
that of the Cyclops, in forming 
thunder-bolts; and then speaks of 
the various offices which are assign- 
ed to these political insects in their 
republic, and the cautions which 
they use in defending themselves 
against rising winds. 

173. ^tna.] It is antrum in one 
of the Arundelian manuscripts. 



175. In numerum.^ That is, in a 
certain order, making a sort of har- 
mony with the regular strokes of 
their hammers of different weights. 
We learn from Jamblichus, that the 
sound of the smith's hammers 
taught Pythagoras to invent the 
monochord, an instrument for mea- 
suring the quantities and propor- 
tions of sounds geometrically. This 
philosopher, observing that the di- 
versity of sound was owing to the 
size of the hammers, suspended four 
equal strings, sustaining weights of 
twelve, nine, eight, and six pounds. 
Then striking alternately the strings 
which sustained the twelve and six 
pounds, he found that the diapason 
or octave was formed by the pro- 
portion of two to one. The twelve 
and eight pound weights taught 
him that the diapente or fifth was 
in the proportion of three to two 3 
and the twelve and nine pounds 
that the diatessaron or fourth was 
as four to three. The whole pas- 
sage is too long to be here inserted: 
therefore I must refer the curious 
reader, for farther satisfaction, to the 
twenty-sixth chapter of Jamblichus, 
de vita Pythagorce. 

176. Nan aliter, si parva licet com- 
ponere magnis.] This comparison 
of the bees to the labouring Cyclops, 
has by some been thought very im- 

3 b2 



37® 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



does an innate desire of grow- 
ing rich prompt the Athenian 
bees, each of them in their 
proper office. Tlie elder have 
the care of their towns, repair 
the combs, and erect the ar- 
tificial edifices. But the 
younger return wearied home, 
late atni^ht.with their thighs 
laden with thyme. They feed 
also at large on arbutes, and 
hoary willows, and casia, and 
glowing saffron, and fat limes, 
and deep coloured hyacinths. 



Cecropias innatus apes amor urget habendi, 
Munere quamque suo. Grandaevis oppida ciirae, 
Et munire favos, et dsedala fingere tecta. 
At fessae multa referunt se nocte minores, 180 
Crura thymo plenae ; pascuntur et arbuta passim, 
Et glaucas salices, casiamque, (irocumque ru- 

bentem, 
Et pinguem tiliam, et ferrugineos hyacinthos. 



proper as being rather ritJiculous 
than great. But Mr. Pope is of 
another opinion, who, in his post- 
script to the translation of the 
Odyssey, judiciously observes, that 
there is a great difference between 
the actions of irrational beings, and 
the low actions of such as are ra- 
tional, when they are represented 
in a pompous style. " One may 
'^ add, that the use of the grand style 
" on little subjects, is not only ludi- 
" crous, but a sort of transgression 
" against the rules of proportion 
^' and mechanics : it is using a 
" vast force to lift a feather : I be- 
" lieve, now I am upon this head, 
" it will be found a just observa- 
•' tion, that the low actions of life 
'' cannot be put into a figurative 
" style without being ridiculous, 
" but things natural can. Meta- 
" phors raise the latter into dignity, 
'' as we see in the Georgicks ; but 
'^ throw the former into ridicule, as 
" in the Lutrin. I think this may 
*^ be very well accounted for -, 
'' laughter implies censure ; inani- 
" mate and irrational beings are 
'* not objects of censure ; therefore 
" these may be elevated as much 
" as you please, and no ridicule 
^' follows : but when rational be- 
** ings are represented above their 
" real character, it becomes ridicu- 
*' lous in art, because it is vicious 
'' in morality. The bees in Virgil, 
** would be ridiculous by having 



" their actions and manners repre- 
" sented on a level with creatures 
" so superior as men j since it 
'* would imply folly or pride, which 
" are the proper objects of ridicule." 

177- Cecropias P\ The Poet calls 
the bees Cecropias, from Cecrops 
king of Attica, where the honey 
was famous. 

178. Grandcevis oppida cures.'] 
This passage is taken from Aris- 
totle, who observes, that the older 
bees work witliin doors, and thence 
become more hairy ; but that the 
younger sort go abroad, and there- 
fore are smoother : Tm ^g faXiTraf 
at filn v^iffQvri^xi Ttc utu i^yci^ofTeu , 
Kelt ^xa-tiai tta-i dtcc to iio'a fcivur. at ^6 
»£«< 'i%a&i)i <pl^ov<ri, xai it<rt Xuori^ai. 

179- Fingere.] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it isjigere. 

181. Crura thymo plenae.'] The 
hairiness of the bees' legs serves to 
retain the juices which they gather 
from flowers. 

Arbuta.] See the notes on book i. 
ver. 148, and on book iii. ver. 300. 

182. Glaucas salices.] See the 
note on book ii, ver. 13. 

Casiam.'] See the note on book 
ii. ver. 213, 

Crocumque rubentem.] The petal 
of the saffron flower is purple, but 
the three divisions of the style, which 
are the only parts in use, are of the 
colour of fire. 

163. Pinguem tiliam.] See the 
note on book ii. ver. 449- 



GEORG, LIB. IV. 



375 



Omnibus una quies operum, labor omnibus rnius. ^n of ^J^^J^Jour ^.g^tber. 



Ferrugineos hyac'mthos.'] There 
are many flowers commonly known 
in gardens under the name of Hya- 
cinth, but none of them agree with 
the description which we find of 
this flower among the poets, who 
represent it as having the letters 
A I inscribed on its petals. Thus 
Moschus, in his epitaph on Bion, 
calls upon the Hyacinth to take 
more marks of A I on its petals : 

N«y vaxivh KeiXu ra fa y^afAfAtcraf xai 

TXiov A I, A I, 
Aaf^San troTg TsrdXnirt' xakog ri^fUKi 

(jt-tXixrois. 

The poets feign that the boy Hya- 
cinthus, who was unfortunately 
killed by Apollo, was changed by 
that deity into a Hyacinth, which 
therefore was marked with these 
notes of lamentation to express 
Apollo's grief. Thus Ovid: 

Semper eris mecum, memorique haerebis 

in ore. 
Te lyra pulsa manu, te carmina nostra 

sonabunt : 
Flosque novus scripto gemitus imitabere 

nostros. 

' Thou shah with me abide 
And ever in my memory reside. 
Our harp and verse ihy praises shall re- 
sound: 
And in tliy Jlowre my sorrow shall he 
found. 

Sandys. 

It is also feigned, that the same 
flower arose from the blood of Ajax, 
when he slew himself j those letters 
being half the name of that hero. 
Thus Ovid : 



Rubefactaque sanguine tellus 



Purpureum viridi genuit de cespite 

florem, 
Qui prius (Ebalio fuerat de vulnere 

natus. 
Litera communis mediis pueroque viro- 

que 
Inscripta est foliis: haec nominis, ilia 

querela. 



The bloud that fell, 

A purple Jlowre ingendered on ilie gf-ound: 
Created first by Hyacinthus' wound. 
The tender leaves indifferent letters paint ; 
Both of his name, and of the gods com- 
plaint. 

Sandys. 

To this Virgil seems to allude in 
the third Eclogue : 

Die quibus in terris inscripti nomina re- 
gum 

Nascantur flores; et Phyllida solus ha- 
beto. 

N'ay tell me first, in what neie region 

springs 
A flower that bears inscribed the names of 

kings : 
And thou shalt gain a present as divine 
As Phoebus self for Phillis shall be thine. 
Dryden. 

1 must not forget to observe, that the 
vaccinium mentioned by our Poet 
in the second and tenth Eclogues 
is not diflFerent from what in 
other places he calls hyacinthus: 
the latter being the Greek name, 
and the former a Latin name de^ 
rived from it. For the ^Eolians, 
who aflPected to change the v into 
the diphthong ov, as B-vydrn^ into 
B-dvyuTTi^, wrote ovxKtvdiov and ovxxlvviov 
for the diminutive vecKtvdtov j and 
ovcexifviov in Roman letters is vacci- 
nium. This opinion is confirmed 
by a line in the tenth Eclogue ; 

Et nigrae violae sunt et vaccinia nigra; 

which is a literal translation of a 
line in the tenth Idyllium of Theo- 
critus : 

Ka} TO lov fiiX»9 l»Tif »ai a y^ot^ra, vdxiv^os. 

Here Virgil himself translates vdxtv- 
6og vaccinium. The form of the 
Hyacinth is particularly described 
by Ovid : 

Ecce cruor, qui fusus humi signaverat 

herbam, 
Desinit esse cruor : Tyrioque nitentior 

ostro 



374 



P. VIRGILir MARONIS 



Jf lhdrS\Juhyt"deia''y"f Mane ruunt portis ; nusquam mora : rufsus 

and when , i o ►^ 

easdem . lo5 



Flos oritur, formamque capit quam lilia, 

si non 
Purpureus color huic, argenteus esset in 

illis. 
Non satis hoc Phoebo est ; is enim fuit 

auctor honoris. 
Ipse suos gemitus foliis inscribit ; et A I, 

AI 
Flos habet inscriptum, fucestaque litera 

ducta est. 



Behold! the bloud "which late th£ grass 

had dide, 
Was now no hloud : from it/hence a JUywre 

full Itown 
Far brighter than the Tyrian scarlet 

shone : 
Which seerrCd the same, or did resemhle 

right 
A lillie : changing lut the red to white. 
Not so contented (for the youth received 
That grace from Phoebus) in the leaves he 

weav'd 
The sad impression of his sighs : A I! 

A I! 
They now in funeral characters display. 
Sandys. 

We here learn, that the flower in 
question was shaped like a lily, was 
of a red colour, and was marked 
with the letters A 1. I have more 
than once mentioned the difficulty 
of precisely determining the colours 
mentioned by the ancients. Ovid 
calls the flower of the Hyacinth 
Tyrio nitentior ostro, and purpureus. 
Virgil calls it in this place ferrugi- 
neus, and in the third Eclogue he 
calls it suave rubens; and in the 
eleventh -^neid he speaks of its 
great brightness : 

Qualem virgineo demessum pollice florem 
Seu mollis violae, seu languentis Hya- 

cinthi ; 
Cui neque fulgor adhuc, necdum sua 

forma recessit. 

Hence we can only gather, that the 
colour of this flower is a deep shin- 
ing red. I take the epithet ferru- 



gineos in this place only to express 
the deepness of the colour. Thus 
in the first Georgick it is used to 
signify the dusky redness of the sun, 
after the murder of Julius Caesar : 

Cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine 
texit. 

See the note on book i. ver. 467. 
In the sixth ^neid the boat of 
Charon is called ferrugineay where 
no doubt it means dusky : 

Et ferruginea subvectat corpora cymba. 

In the ninth i^neid the son of Ar- 
cens is said to be 



Ferrugine clarus Ibera ; 



that is, adorned with a deep purple 
garment dyed in Spain : and in the 
eleventh book it is joined with the 
Tyrian colour : 

Ipse peregrina ferrugine clarus et ostro. 

It is probable that all these several 
epithets, purpureus, suave rubens, 
ferrugineus, mean a sort of crim- 
son, the colour of human blood, 
the Hyacinth being feigned to have 
risen from the blood of Hyacinthus, 
and afterwards from that of Ajax. 

Having said thus much of the 
Hyacinth of the Poets, it will be 
time to consider what flower will 
agree with the description which 
they have given of it. 

Various sorts of flowers have 
been proposed, by the botanical 
critics, for this Hyacinth, the dis- 
cussing of all which would be too 
tedious in this place. Some insist 
on the lark's-spur, which does not 
seem to me to bear any resemblance 
of a lily, nor do the letters inscribed 
appear, till the flower has been 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



375 



Vesper ubi e past u tandem decedere cam pis 
Admonuitjtum tecta petunt, tum corpora curant. 
Fit sonitus, mussantque oras et limina circum. 
Post, ubi jam thalamis se composuere, siletur 



the evening admonishes them 
to return at length from feed- 
ing in the fields, then they 
seek their habitations, and 
then they take care of their 
bodies. They make a mur- 
muring noise, and hum about 
the sides and entrance of the 
hives. Afterwards, when they 
are laid down on tlieir beds, 
they are silent 



curiously dissected. Others propose 
the red lily, but this, as was ob- 
served before, was a flov^r little 
known among the ancients, nor is . 
the colour right. Others mention 
Xyris, or stinking Gladdon, the 
flowers of which are not sufficiently 
beautiful. Others, with more pro- 
bability, think the Gladiolus or 
Corn-Jlag to be the flower in ques- 
tion J but I have never been able 
to discover in that flower the letters 
A I. I am pretty well satisfied , that 
the flower celebrated by the Poets, 
is what we now are acquainted with 
under the name of Lilium Jloribus 
reflexis, or Martagon, and perhaps 
may be that very species which we 
call Imperial Martagon. The flowers 
of most sorts of Martagons have 
many spots of a deeper colour; and 
sometimes I have seen these spots 
run together in such a manner, as 
to form the letters A I, in several 
places, which I have caused to be 
represented in the figure. 

The translators have grievously 
erred in translating the names of 
the plants here spoken of. May 
translates arbuta, wildings ; and ca- 
siam, cinnamon, and renders/err?/gi- 
weos very improperly paZe, and glau- 
cas, green. 



They feed upon 



Wildings, green willows, saffron, cinna- 
mon. 
Pale hyacinths, and fruitful linden trees. 

Addison omits the arhnta, and in- 
serts the balmy reed instead of them,- 
he translates casiam, lavender j and 
hyacinthos, violets : 



On lavender, and saffron hnd& they feed, 
On bending osiers, and the balmy reed ; 
From purple violets and the telle they 

bring 
Their gather'd sweets, and rifle all the 

spring. 

Dryden's translation is not more 
exact. 

He spoils the saffron flow'rs, he sips the 

blues 
Of vi'lets, wilding blooms, and willow 

dews. 

Dr. Trapp has succeeded much bet- 
ter, only he has fallen into a com- 
mon error of taking the casia to be 
lavender. 

They suck the Arbutus, and willows grey, 
Sweet lavender, and crocus' yellow flowV, 
The purple hyacinth, and gummy lime, 

184. Omnibus una quies, &c.] 
This passage is taken from Aristotle, 
who says, that in the morning they 
are all silent, till one of them calls 
the rest up with two or three hums: 
then they all go out to work. And 
when they return, they are at first 
tumultuous, but grow more quiet 
by degrees, till at last one flies 
buzzing round the rest, as if it com- 
manded silence, upon which they 
are all immediately quiet: "O^d^ixt 

oig ^ Tot^' TOTS §' Itt ggydv ud^oui Tnrovrxty 
xeti Ixdovffxi TciXiv, 6o^vQovcrt re TT^aT^v 
xecrci. fitfc^ov §' vjttcv, zu<; av fci'x Tri^iTCi- 
rcfMvvi /Sof6<o>jVji, UTTCi^ a-yjuetivAvcra Kcchv- 

187. Turn.] In the old Nuren- 
berg edition it is dum. 

188. Limina.'] In the old Nuren- 
berg edition it is lamina. 



376 



P. yiRCilLIT MARONIS 



all night, aud a sweet sleep 
possesses their wearied limbs. 
Jiut when rain impends, they 
do not depart far from their 
hives, nor do they trust the 
sky, when east winds approach : 
but drink the water in safety 
near the walls of their city, 
and try short excursions; and 
take up little stones, as boats 
that totter on the tossing wave 
take ballast: with these they 
poise themselves through the 
empty clouds. But of ail the 
properties of bees this most of 
all will cause your wonder. 



In nbctem, fessosque sopor suus occupat ar- 
tus. 190 

Nee vero a stabulis pluvia impendente recedunt 
Longius, aut credunt caelo adventantibus Euris; 
Sed circum tutae sub mcenibus urbis aquantur, 
Excursusque breves tentant, et saepe lapillos, 
Utcymbaeinstabilesfluctujactantesaburram, 195 
Tollunt : his sese per inania nubila librant. 
Ilium adeo placuisse apibus mirabere morem. 



190. Sopor suus.'] Servius inter- 
prets this ipsis aptus. 

194. Scepe lapillos, &c.] This is 
taken from Aristotle : "Orav Tz «vg- 

197. Ilium adeo placuisse, &c.] 
The Poet's account of the genera- 
tion of bees is by no means consist- 
ent with the doctrine of the modern 
philosophers, who assert with great 
probability, that no animal, nor 
even plant, is produced without a 
concurrence of the two sexes. How- 
ever the doctrine of equivocal ge- 
neration was so generally admitted 
by the ancients, that it is no wonder 
the Poet should assent to it. We 
find this opinion related by Aristo- 
tle, in his fifth book of the history 
of animals. '' There are various 
" opinions," says the philosopher, 
" concerning the generation of bees. 
" For some deny that they either 
" copulate or bring forth their 
** young, thinking that they gather 
'• their produce. Nor are these 
*' agreed about the flower from 
'' which they gather them : but 
" some will have it to be from the 
*' honey-wort, some from the reed, 
" and others from the olive; which 
" last, in favour of their opinion, 
*' urge that there are more swarms 
" of bees in proportion as the olive- 
" trees are fruitful. Some are of 



" opinion, that only the drones are 
'' produced after this manner ; but 
" that the bees are produced by 

'' the leaders Others will 

" have it, that they are produced 
" by copulation, and affirm that the 
" drones are the males, and the 
^' bees the females :" Ui^i 'hi rh 
yivia-iv Tcnv fiiXtrrZv eu rov ccvtov t^ottov 
TTcivTig VTToXcifzQoivova-iV. ot f/Xi yei^ ^xo-iv 
ov TtKTHv, oiidl o^svio-Sxi Tcig f4,'iXtrrxi , 
eiXXa, (p'i^nv rov yovov. Kxi ^£gs<v ol f4,lv 
«,7ro tov civ6ovg rov kuXvvt^ov, oi hi 
ciTro rov (Cv6ovg rov netXcif^ov, aXXoi hi 
UTTo Tov fisy^ayj t?? Ixxiocg, Kxt (rrjf^uov 
Xiyova-iv , on etv Ixxim ^opa, yivi^rcci, 
roTi Kxi lo-fiol ci^iivTXi 7rXi7<rrx' ol hi 
^eCTi rov f^iv rZv Kri^tivav (pi^nv ccvrug 
yovov, UTTo rivog vXrig rcog is^r.fi'ivav, rov hi 
rav jAiXirrat riKriiv rovg ^yif^ovxg. . . 
ol hi (pcariv oy^ivKrBxt, kxi 
iivxi x^pivag f*lv rovg x>j(p?»a5$, SiiMixs hi 
rag fAiXirrxg. Pliny has almost 
translated the words of Aristotle. 
But he has added, that the bees 
certainly sit like hens, and that the 
young bee at its first appearance is 
a worm : " Quod certum est, gal- 
" linarum mode incubant. Id quod 
'' exclusum est, primum vermiculus 
" videtur candidus, jacens transver- 
" sus, adhaerensque ita ut pascere 
" videatur." But the modern phi- 
losophers have been more happy in 
discovering the nature of these 
wonderful insects. The labouring 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



37T 



Quod nee concubitu indulgent, nee corpora 

segnes 
In venerem solvunt, aut foetus nixibus edunt; 
Verum ipsae e foliis natos et suavibus herbis 200 
Ore legunt : ipsas regem parvosque Quirites 
Suffieiunt, aulasque et eerea regna refingunt. 
Saepe etiam duris errando in eotibus alas 
Attrivere, ultroque animam sub fasce dedere : 
Tantus amor florum, et generandi gloria mel- 

lis. 205 

Ergo ipsas quamvis angusti terminus aevi 
Excipiat, neque enim plus septima ducitur aestas, 



that tbey do not copulate, or 
enervate their bodies by laat, 
or labour to bring forth their 
young. But they themselves 
gather their young from leaves 
and sweet herbs. They them- 
selves also produce their king, 
and their small citizens: and 
repair their palaces and waxen 
realms. Olten also, whilst 
they wander over the hard 
rocks, have tbey battered their 
wings, and voluntarily yielded 
up their lives under their 
burthens : so great is their love 
of flowers: such their glory in 
making honey. Therefore, 
though their age has bat a 
narrow bound, for they do 
not live above seven years. 



bees do not appear to be of either 
sex : the drones are discovered to 
have the male organs of genera- 
tion J and the king is found to be 
of the female sex. This king, or 
rather queen, is wholly employed 
in the increase of the family, laying 
several thousand eggs every sum- 
mer, from each of which is hatched 
a small white worm, which in due 
time changes either to a bee or a 
drone. The kings, the labouring 
bees, and the drones, are all promis- 
cuously hatched from these eggs : 
and the same order of nature has 
lately been observed in the wasps. 

198. Concubitu.'] Co7icuhiiu is 
used for concubitui, as before victu 
for victui. 

200. Verum ipsa e foliis naios.'] 
So I read with Heinsius, all the ma- 
nuscripts that I have collated, and 
most of the editors. In several of 
the oldest editions it is verum ipsce 
natos foliis. Paul Stephens and 
Schrevelius read verum ipsce foliis 
natos without e, which reading Pi- 
erius also admitted j who observes, 
that in some manuscripts it is ipsce 
natos foliis; and ips<B e foliis in the 
Roman copy, which he thinks an 
elegant reading. La Cerda reads 
ipsce foliis naios. 



By foliis perhaps the Poet means 
the petals or leaves of ^flowers; for 
Aristotle speaks wholly of flowers. 

202. Refngunt.'] Servius and 
Pierius read refigunt, but this last 
commentator thinks refingunt better, 
as he found \t in the Roman, the 
Medicean, and in some other of the 
older manuscripts. It is refigunt in 
the Cambridge, the Bodleian, one 
of the Arundelian, and one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts, which reading 
is admitted by most of the oldest 
editors, and by Grimoaldus, Paul 
Stephens, La Cerda, Schrevelius, 
and others. But Heinsius, Ruaeus, 
Masvicius, and most of the later 
editions have refingunt. 

203. Scepe etiam duris, &c.] 
These three lines seem to be mis- 
placed : for here they interrupt the 
sense. They seem to come in more 
properly after ver. 196. I am in- 
debted for this observation to the 
learned Sir Daniel Molyneux, Ba- 
ronet, F. R. S. 

206. Angusti^ Some read an- 
gusius; but Pierius found angusti in 
all the manuscripts that he could 
procure. 

207. Neque enim plus septima du- 
citur oestas.] Aristotle says that 
bees live six years, and that some 

3 c 



378: 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



fmmorTu Si tbTforufn'^^l'f At gcHus immortale manet, multosque per annos 

their family subsists for many c p ^ j 

yeais, and they can number i^tat lortuna uomuSj et avi numeraiitur avorum. 
Praeterea regem non sic -^gyptus, et ingens 210 
Lydia, nee populi Parthorum, aut Medus Hy- 
daspes 



grandfathers of grandfathers. 
Besides neither E^ypt, nor 
great Lydia, nor the people 
of the Parthians, nor the Me- 
dian Hydaspes 



last seven ; but if a swarm subsists 
nine or ten years, it is thought very 
happy : B/05 ^l rati ^sXittZv zty, z%' 

iv ^0Ki7 diecyiyivyir&xi. Columella says 
that no swarms can be brought to 
live above ten years : " Durantque, 
'^ si diligenter excultae sunt, in an- 
'*■ nos decern, nee uUum examen 
'' banc aetatem potest excedere, 
^' quamvis in demortuarum locum 
*' quotannis pullos substituant, 
" Nam fere decimo ab internitione 
*' anno, gens universa totius alvei 
" consumitur." 

210. Prceterea regem, &c.] In 
this paragraph the Poet compares 
the obedience of the bees to their 
king with that of the most servile 
nations, the Egyptians, Lydians, 
Parthians, and Medes ; which he 
takes from Aristotle. ''The kings," 
says the philosopher, " never go 
" abroad to feed or on any other 
" occasion, without being accom- 
*' panied by the whole multitude : 
'* and if, when they are abroad, the 
" king happens to stray, they all 
" search after him with the utmost 
"^ diligence, till they find him. We 
*' have been informed also, that, 
" when he is unable to fly, the peo- 
" pie carry him, and that they all 
'' depart when he dies: or if they 
" do tarry, that they make only 
*' combs and not honey: and that 
'' nothing can hinder them all from 
" departing in a short time:" O/ 5g 

oAey Toy \f(4.ov, ovr Ivt ^otrxMy, ovt uX- 
A»5' ^eCG-i ^e Kcit Iccv UTroTrXctvyiS^ o u^iF- 



To» iiytf^oix Tjj oTfJLvi' Xiytrxi 2i xxt 
<PZ£i(r6xi xvTov VTTo rou ta-fiov otxv Trirt- 

ff-dXi |t6^ ^VVViTXl, text lav cC7roX>iVTXh 

X7roX?^v(r6xi rh u(piTfx.6r lav 5' x^x 
X^ovov Tivx dixf^sivao-t, tcx) kvj^Ix ev vot- 
Ka-aiFi, f^sM ovK \yylvia-6xi, fcxi xvtu^ 
lax.v xTroXXva-Sxt. But notwithstand- 
ing the general opinion concerning 
the allegiance of these insects, 
Swaramerdam, a Dutch writer, con- 
tends that their government is a 
republic, which subsists by mutual 
affection, without any despotic or 
monarchical power : " Non tamen 
'' sicco pede prseterire potuimus 
" Rempublicam Apum, quae solo 
" amore, sine uUa potestate despo- 
'' tica aut monarchica, continetur/* 
The French Academicians, under 
the reign of Louis XIV. remarked 
with much complaisance, that 
among the bees the privilege of 
generation belongs only to the royal 
family; all the subjects being con- 
demned to barrenness. Many ob- 
servations equally useful might be 
made on the economy of these in- 
sects. I wonder none of our own 
writers will contend for a mixed go- 
vernment among them ; or be polite 
enough to shew the happiness of be- 
ing under a female administration. 

Mgyptus.l The Egyptians were 
remarkable adorers of their mo- 
narchs ; many of the heathen gods 
being the deified kings of that 
people. 

Ingens Lydia.'] Lydia was a re- 
gion of Asia minor, famous for 
their rich king Croesus, and their 
golden river Pactolus. 

211. Populi Parthorum.'] Par- 
thia was a region of Asia, bounded 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



379 



Observant. Rege incolumi mens omnibus una 

est: 
Amisso rupere fidem ; constructaque mella 
Diripuere ipsae, et crates solvere favor um. 
Ille operum custos : ilium admirantur, et om- 

nes 215 

Circumstant fremitu denso, stipantque fre- 

quentes ; 
Et saepe attollunt liumeris, et corpora bello 



are so obsequioas to their 
king. Whilst the king is safe, 
they remain united: but when 
he 19 (lead, they dissolve their 
society, pull down the fabric 
of their honey, and tear in 
pieces the structure of their 
combs. He is the guard of 
their works : him they admire 
and surround with frequent 
shoutings, and crowd about 
him : and often carry him on 
their shoulders, and for bis 
sake expose their bodies in 
war, 



on the west by Media, on the 
north by Hyrcania, on the east by 
Ariana, and on the south by the 
deserts of Carmania. These people 
are reported to have been so sub- 
missive to their king, as to kiss 
his foot, and to touch the ground 
with their mouths, when they ap- 
proached him. 

Medus HydaspesJ] The Hydaspes, 
of which we find such abundant 
mention among the ancient writers, 
was a river of India. But here 
Virgil seems to speak of a Median 
river of the same name, which 
however I do not find mentioned 
by any of the ancient geographers. 
Servius says expressly it is a river 
of Media, but on what authority I 
do not know. La Cerda says that 
the Poet justly calls this river Me- 
dian, because it washes Media be- 
fore it empties itself into the In- 
dus. If this were true, it would 
have been a river of too much con- 
sequence, to be passed over in si- 
lence, as it must flow through a 
greater extent of land than the In- 
dus itself But no such river seems 
to be known by any geographer, 
either ancient or modern. Ruaeus 
says that Virgil is singular in plac- 
ing this river in Media, which I 
believe is true. But Catrou, in his 
note on this passage, says the Hy- 
daspes was a river of Persia, and 



gives us a caution, not to confound 
this river with the Indian Hydas- 
pes : " L'Hydaspe etoit un fleuve 
*' de Perse, peu eloigne de la ville 
^' de Susa, I'une des capitales de la 
" Perse. II ne faut pas confondre 
" ce fleuve Hydaspe avec un autre 
'' de m^me noni, qui fut dans les 
'^ Indes, le terme des conquetes 
" d'Alexandre." I wish this learned 
Father had favoured us with some 
good authority to support what he 
says. The river meant by him 
seems to be the Choaspes, which 
perhaps Virgil might, with a poe- 
tical liberty, call the Hydaspes of 
the Medes. This river rising in 
Media flows through Susiana, near 
the city Susa, one of the capitals of 
the Persian empire. The water of 
it was so very famous, that accord- 
ing to Plutarch, the Persian kings 
would drink of no other. eTtaj im 

uXviGli;, oTi TO Toy Xoeca-Ttov f^ovof v^ag 

oiKovf^hviv. The reader may find in 
Xenophon abundant instances of 
the extraordinary obedience which 
was paid by the Medes and Persians 
to their monarch. 

212. Mens omnibus una est.^ Est 
is wanting in one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts. 

216. Frequentes.'] It is frementes 
in the Bodleian manuscript. 
3 c 2 



380 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



wo'ii^s^ ^so^me'b^infied by Objectaiit, pulchramque petunt per vulnera 

these appearances, and follow- 

iag these examples, mortem. 

His quidam signis, atque haec exempla secuti 



219. His quidam signis, &c.] The 
Poet observes, that some philoso- 
phers, considering the great' saga- 
city of these insects, have supposed 
them to partake of the divine mind ; 
and hence takes occasion to speak 
of the Platonic system of a soul 
animating the universe. 

At the latter end of the second 
book our Poet declares himself an 
admirer of Epiciirus 5 and in this 
place he plainly follows the doc- 
trines of Plato, in which he has 
been accused of inconsistency. But 
let it be observed, that he has not 
shew^n himself attached to the whole 
Epicurean philosophy. The doc- 
trine of that philosopher, which 
Virgil adopts, is, that happiness con- 
sists in a constant tranquillity of 
mind ; and that a wise man ought 
to lay aside the fear of death. He 
had indeed in his younger days been 
a more strict follower of Epicurus, 
as we may gather from the sixth 
Eclogue. But perhaps in his riper 
years he might, as well as his friend 
Horace, lay aside some of those 
doctrines. The belief of a divine 
mind governing the universe, and 
of a future state, plainly appears 
in this Georgick, and in the sixth 
iEneid. It may be objected, that 
he does not here propose the Pla- 
tonic system as his own opinion, 
because he says only that some 
have advanced this doctrine. But 
then it must be considered, that he 
has put the same sentiments in the 
mouth of Anchises, in the Elysian 
fields, which he would not have 
done, if he had not thought them to 
be true. I know it will be replied, 
that the commentators are almost 
unanimously of opinion, that Virgil 



himself declares what he has said 
of the future state, in the sixth 
Mne'id, to be a fiction, which he 
plainly expresses by the passage of 
iEneas through the ivory gate. 
But it seems improbable, that the 
Poet should bestow so much pains 
in composing that fine account of 
the infernal regions ; should take 
an opportunity of making so de- 
licate a compliment to Augustus 
and the Roman people, and at last 
conclude with giving them to un- 
derstand, that there was no truth 
in what he had been saying. The 
transparent gate of horn was that 
through which the true shades were 
sent ; and the opaque gate of ivory 
served for the passage of false vi- 
sions: 

Sunt gerainas somni portas ; quarum al- 
tera fertur 

Cornea, qua veris facilis datur exitus 
umbris : 

Altera candentiperfectanitenselephanto; 

Sed falsa ad cesium mittiint insomnia 
manes. 

Two gates of sleep there are : the one of 

horn. 
Through which with ease the real pJumtoms 

pass : 
With polished elephant the oilier shines. 
Through which the Manes send false 

dreams to light. 

Dr. Trapp. 

^neas therefore being a solid body, 
and no real shade, was not sent out 
at the gate appropriated to true 
visions, but at that through which 
false visions, being bodies of a 
more dense substance than the true, 
were accustomed to pass : 

His ubi turn natum Anchises unaque 

Sybillam 
Prosequitur dictis, portaque emittit ebur- - 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



381 



Esse apibiis partem divinee mentis, et haustus 
jEtherios dixere. Deum namque ire per omnes 
Terrasque, tractusque maris, caelumque pro- 

fundum. 
Hinc pecudes, armenta, viros, genus omne fera- 

rum, 
Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas. 
Scilicet hue reddi deinde ac resoluta referri 225 



have said that the bees are 
endowed with a part of the 
divine mind, and with selhe- 
rial influences. For their opi- 
nion is that the Deity passes 
through the whole earth, the 
extent of the sea, and the 
height of heaven. That hence 
the flocks, the herds, men, 
and all sorts of wild beasta, 
nay all creatures, at their 
birth draw in tlieir lives. 
That all of them, when dis- 
solved, are bither returned : 



Here then the sire ^nchises lo'ith his son. 
And his propJietic guide, in siich discourse 
Confers ; and sends them through the iv'ry 
gate. 

Dr. Trapp. 

Had he been let out at the horn 
gate, the whole must have been 
taken for a vision, though a true 
one: but -(Eneas being yet a living 
body, and no proper inhabitant of 
those regions, had been admitted, 
before the separation of his soul 
from his body, to converse with 
spirits, not in a vision, but in reality. 
The opaque gate was therefore 
the most proper for the passage of 
a soul, whilst yet encumbered with 
a terrestrial body. 

220. Partem divince mentis.'] Ho- 
race uses an expression like this, 
for the human soul : 



Quin corpus onustum 



Hesternis vitiis mcntem quoque praegra- 

vat una, 
Atque aflBgit humo divinoe jjarticulam 



^21. Deum namque ire per omnes, 
&c.] We are informed by Plutarch, 
in his second book of the opinions 
of philosophers, that all of them, 
except Democritus, Epicurus, and 
the rest, who assert the doctrine 
of a vacuum and atoms, held the 
universe to be animated : Oifih eixxoi 

2iOiKCVfCiV0V. Anf^CK^iTOi di KUt 'EttUov- 

§05 Kect oToi ru t^Tof^oc tis'Kyovvrxi kui to 



XiVOV, 6VTS if/,-^V^OV, OVIi TTfOVOlOi OlOlKil- 

(r6u(j ^vff-n 2i T<»< a>^oya>. This opi- 
nion of the soul of the universe is 
farther inculcated by our poet in 
the sixth -^neid : 

Principio, caelum, ac terras, camposque 

liquentes, 
liUcentemque globum lunae, Titaniaque 

astra 
Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per 

artus 
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore 

miscet. 

Know Jirst, that heaven and earth's com- 

pacted frame. 
And flowing waters, and the starry 

flame. 
And both the radiant lights, one common 

soul 
Inspires, and feeds, and animates the 

whole. 
TJiis active mind infused through all the 

space. 
Unites and mingles with the mighty mass, 
Dbyden. 

Thus also ^schylus : 

Z.tvi rot •Teavra : 

And Lucan, 

Jupiter est quodcunque vides, quocunque 
moveris. 

224. Arcessere v^ias^^ Pierius 
found accersere in some ancient ma- 
nuscripts. In one of Dr. Mead's it 
is accessere. The King's manuscript 
has vitam instead of vitas. 

225. Ac resoluta.] In the King's 
manuscript it is ad resoluta: in one 
of Dr. Mead's it is a;re soluta. 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



that there is no place for 
death, that they fly alive 
among the stars, and rise up 
to the high heaven. If at any 
time you would open their 
august mansion, and the honey 
preserved in their treasuries, 
first gargle your mouth with 
water and spirt it out, and 
drive in persecuting smoke 
with your hand. 



Omnia: nee morti esse locum, sed viva volare 
Sideris in numerum, atque alto succedere caelo. 
Si quando sedem augustam, servataque mella 
Thesauris relines; prius haustu sparsus aquarum 
Ora fove, fumosque manu praetende sequaces. 



226. Nee morti esse locum.'] Ac- 
cording to Plutarch, it was the opi- 
nion of Pythagoras and Plato, that 
the soul did not die, but that, when 
it left the body, it returned to the 
kindred soul of the universe: the 
Stoics thought the souls of the igno- 
rant perished with their bodies; and 
that those of the wise endured till 
the conflagration. Democritus and 
Epicurus were of opinion, that the 
soul and body died together: Py- 
thagoras and Plato held, that the 
irrational part perished, but not the 
rational: the soul being (though 
not God himself, yet) the work of 
the eternal God : Uvd»yo^otg, Tlxdrm, 
a^6cc^Tov slvou riiv "^v^Jfi^' l^tovcrxv y«g 
tU TO rov TrxvTog "^v^yiv uvx^a^iTv TTgog 
70 ofioyivig' 01 'ZtuIko], l^iov<rxv rm a-a- 
fAoitOiV V7ro<p't^iT6xi , TKV f*lv uThna-Tigxv 
Uf/ix rcig a-vyx^ffiUTi yivicrdocr (rccvrviv 
ol iivxi rm UTTxidiiiToiv) riiv ^£ ia-^v^ori- 
gasv, e/x la-Tt TCt^l rcvg co^ovg kxI f*^X^t 
TJjf hcirv^da-iug. Avif^ox^iTOg , 'EviKov^og , 

HvSxyo^xg, UXuTeov, to yXv MyiKov, 
x^&x^Tov, (xxt yotg riiv '4^v;(j^v ov 6iov 
uXX' i^yov Toy xt'^iov 6iov VTTci^^uy) to 
ol uXoyov, (pSx^riv. 

227. Succedere.'] Pierius found 
se condere in the Roman manu- 
script. 

228. Si quando, &c.] In this pa- 
ragraph the Poet speaks of the two 
seasons of taking the honey, and of 
the passionate temper of the bees. 

Augustam.] Most editors read 
augustam, as Pierius found it in the 
Lombard and in some other manu- 
scripts. It is angustam also in all 
the manuscripts which I have col- 



lated, except one of Dr. Mead's 
But Servius, Grimoaldus, Paul Ste- 
phens, Heinsius, Schrevelius, and 
Masvicius read augustam. It is aw- 
gustam also in the old Nurenberg 
edition, and in two old editions 
printed at Venice in folio^ in 1475 
and 1476. 

229- Prius haustu sparsus aqua- 
rum ora fove.] This passage is very 
variously read. Servius, Grimo- 
aldus, Heinsius, Ruaeus, Masvicius, 
and some others, approve the read- 
ing which I have followed. Both 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts have haustus 
and ore Jove, which are admitted by 
the three old editions quoted in the 
preceding note, and by Paul Ste- 
phens, La Cerda, and Schrevelius. 
Servius says sparsus is used for spar~ 
gens, one participle for another, 
which is not unusual among the 
poets. The construction therefore 
will be Prius fove ora haustu aqua- 
rum spargens, First gargle your mouth 
with water spirting it. The same 
commentator observes that some 
read orefave, an expression used by 
the ancients to command a religious 
silence, as ore favete omnes in the 
fifth ^neid, and favete Unguis in 
Horace. According to this inter- 
pretation the sense, will be. First 
sprinkling them with a draught of 
water, observe silence. In one of the 
Arundelian manuscripts it is ore 
fare, which I suppose was intended 
for orefave. 

230. Fumosque manu prcefende se- 
quaces.] It is a custom to drive bees 
with smoke. Columella speaks 
largely on this subject. 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



383 



Bis gravidos cogunt foetus, duo tempora messis, piSous'' honey^^"iE! 
Taygete simul os terris ostendit honestum 
Eleias, et oceani spretos pede reppulit amnes : 
Aut eadem sidus fugiens ubi. piscis aquosi 



Twice do they compress the 
ere are 
two seasons of taking it ; one 
as soon as the Pleiad U'aygete 
has shewn her beauteous face 
to the earth, and has spurned 
the despised waters of the 
ocean : or when the same 
star, flying from the constel- 
lation of the watery fish, 



23\. Foetus.] The commentators 
agree, tliat by this word not the 
young bees but the honey is meant. 

Duo tempora messis^ The Poet 
seems to follow Aristotle, who says 
there are two seasons of making 
honey, in spring and in autumn : 
Tji 21 rov fcsXiTog isyuarioe, 2itto} koci^oI 
ua-iy, lag Koti [ziroTTu^ny. Varro men- 
tions three seasons ; the first at 
the rising of the Pleiades, the se- 
cond about the latter end of sum- 
mer, before the whole constellation 
Bootes rises, the third after the set- 
ting of the Pleiades : " Eximendo- 
'' rum favorum primum putant esse 
" tern pus vergiliarum exortu ; se- 
'^ cuntium aestate acta, ante quam 
*' totus exoriatur Arcturus 5 tertium 
" post vergiliarum occasum." Co- 
lumella mentions the twenty-second 
or twenty-third of April, and the 
twenty-ninth of June : *' Tertio 
'' calendas Julii ventosa tempestas. 
" His diebus eadem quae supra. 
'^ Sed et viciam in pabulum secare 
*' oportet . . . alvos castrare, quas 
'^ subinde nono quoque aut decimo 
*' die ad calendas Maias considerare 
^' et curare oportet." Pliny speaks 
of May and July : *' Dies status in- 
" choandi, ut quadam lege naturae, 
*' si scire aut observare homines ve- 
'* lint, trigesimus ah educto exa- 
" mine : fereque Maio mense in- 
'^ cluditur haec vindemia. Alteram 
'^ genus est mellis aestivi, quod ideo 
*' vocatur horaeum, a tempestivitate 
" praecipua, ipso sirio explendes- 
*' cente post solstitium diebus tri- 
*' ginta fere." Palladius places the 
time of taking the honey in June. 

232. Taygete.l Taygete was one 



of the Pleiades : see the notes on 
book i. ver. 138, and 221. 

The Pleiades rise with the sun on 
the twenty-second of April, accord- 
ing to Columella : *' Decimo calen- 
" das Maias Vergiliae cum sole ori- 
" untur." 

I cannot help observing in this 
place, that Addison, in his transla- 
tion, has given warmth and lustre 
to the Pleiades : 

Twice in the year their flow'ry toils 

begin. 
And twice they fetch their dewy harvest 

in; 
Once when the lovely Pleiades arise. 
And add fresh lustre to the summer skies; 
And once when hast'ning from the 'vat'ry 

sign 
They quit their station, and forbear to 

shine. 

And yet, in his letter from Italy, 
he represents them as a northern 
constellation : 

We envy not the warmer clime, that 
lies 

In ten degrees of more indulgent skies. 

Nor at the coarseness of our heaven re- 
pine, 

Tho' o'er our heads the frozen Pleiads 
shine. 

But the Pleiades do not shine 
over our heads, but over those of 
the Egyptians and Indians. I be- 
lieve the Pleiades being called the 
seven stars, occasioned this inge- 
nious author to mistake them for 
the seven stars called Charles's 
wain, which do indeed shine over 
our heads, and may be called frozen, 
being so near the pole. 

233. Oceani amnes.] Thus Ho- 
mer : pooi aKixveTo. 

234!» Aut eadem, &c.] It has 



384 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



descends mournfully into the 
waters of winter. They are 
wrathful above measure, and 
if they are oflFended they 
breathe venom into their 
6tiitgs, and leave their hidden 
darts fixe(W to the veins, and 
part with their lives in the 
wounds that they inflict. 



Tristior hybernas caelo descendit in undas 
Illis ira modum supra est, laesaeque venenum 
Morsibus inspirant, et spicula caeca relinquunt 
Adfixae venis, animasque in vulnera ponunt. 



been already observed, in the note 
on book i. ver. 221, that the morn- 
ing setting of the Pleiades is about 
the latter end of October, or begin- 
ning of November. 

Sidus fugiens ubi piscis aquosi] 
The commentators are greatly di- 
vided about the constellation, which 
the Pleiades are here said to avoid. 
Servius affirms it is the southern 
fish, that receives the water of Aqua- 
rius in his mouth, in which he is 
followed by May : 

Againe when she the southern fish doth 

fiy. 

To winter seas descending heavily : 
Catrou says it is the constellation 
Piscis : " fuyant la presence du 
*^ signe des poissons." He observes 
in his note, that the Pleiades set be- 
fore the Fish arise : " Les Pleiades 
" se couchent avant que le signe 
" des poissons se leve." La Cerda 
was of the same opinion, but he 
says he will not dispute with any 
one, who shall suppose it to be the 
Dolphin. Ruaeus contends that the 
Hydra is meant, which seems to 
follow the Pleiades, and hang over 
them. Dryden says it is the Scor- 
pion : 

Again when their affrighted quire sur- 
veys 

The wat'ry Scorpion mend his pace be- 
hind, 

With a black train of storms and winter 
wind, 

They plunge into the deep, and safe 
protection find. 

The setting of the Pleiades is con- 
fessed to mean the latter end of Oc- 
tober or beginning of November, 
perhaps the eighth, for on that day 



Columella says they set in the morn- 
ing, and, according to the same au- 
thor, winter begins the next. This 
agrees very well with their descend- 
ing into the wintery waters. Now 
we may reasonably suppose, that 
the constellation which they avoid, 
is one that rises in the morning 
about the same time, or soon after 
they set. The Scorpion, according 
to Columella, rises on the thirteenth 
of December : ** Idibus Decembris 
" Scorpio totus mane exoritur." 
This is in favour of Dryden, only I 
can see no reason for calling the 
Scorpion by the name of piscis a quo- 
sus. The Scorpion is no fish, nor 
is its usual habitation in the water. 
The Dolphin rises on the twenty- 
seventh of December : " Sexto ca- 
" lendas Januarias Delphinus in- 
" cipit oriri mane." The sun does 
not enter Aquarius till the middle 
of January, nor Pisces till the mid- 
dle of February. The Dolphin 
therefore seems to be the constel- 
lation meant, as it rises sooner 
after the setting of the Pleiades, 
than any other fish delineated on the 
sphere. As for the Hydra, which 
Ruaeus thinks is the constellation 
intended, I cannot think Virgil 
would call it a fish. 

236. Illis ira modum supra est.'] 
He now assigns a reason for spirting 
water and smoking them : because 
otherwise, being animals of strong 
resentment, they would revenge 
their quarrel on the person who 
should offer to assail them. j 

Pierius found super instead of sm- M 
pra in some ancient manuscripts. * 

238. Adjixce venis.'] Pierius found 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 

Sin duram metues hyemem, parcesque futuro, 
Contusosque animos, et res miserabere fractas ; 
At suffire thy mo, cerasque recidere inanes 241 
Quis dubitet ? nam saepe favos ignotus adedit 
Stellio, et lucifugis congesta cubilia blattis. 



385 



But if you are afraid of a hard 
winter, and would provide for 
futurity, and take pity on 
their broken strengtli, and 
ruined affairs, yet who would 
hesitate to fumigate them with 
thyme, and cut away the 
empty wax? for often the 
skulking lizard has eaten the 
combs, and the chambers are 
full of beetles that avoid the 
Jight, 



adjixa venis in a very ancient manu- 
script, and adnixa vents in the ob- 
long one. It is qffixa in venis in 
one of the Arundel ian manuscripts, 
and adjixa in venis in the other, 
making affixa to agree with spicula, 
which is not amiss. 

Animasque in vulnera ponunt."} So 
I read with one of the Arundelian 
manuscripts, and Heinsius. Pierius 
found the same in the Roman, and 
other manuscripts. The common 
reading is vulnere. 

It is said to be a vulgar error, that 
bees lose their lives with their stings. 

239. Sin duram metues, &c.] The 
poet now proceeds to speak of the 
manner in which those hives should 
be treated, where the honey is not 
taken, but left to support the bees 
in winter, and mentions the plagues 
that infest them. 

Metues.'] Pierius found metuens 
in some ancient manuscripts. It is 
metuens also in the King's manu- 
script. 

240. Contusosque.'] In the King's 
manuscript it is concussosque. 

Miserabere.'] In the King's ma- 
nuscript it is miserabile. 

241. At suffire thy mo.] Pierius 
found aut in some of the old manu- 
scripts. 

The sense seems to be, though 
you think fit not to benefit yourself 
by depriving them of their honey, 
yet it will be worth the while to 
take some pains about preserving 
them. 

This fumigation is recommended 
also by other authors. Varro says 



it should be twice or thrice in a 
month, during the summer: " Ver- 
*' no tempore et aestivo fere ter in 
" mense mellarius inspicere debet 
" fumigans leviter eas, et a spurci- 
*' tiis purgare alvum, et vermiculos 
*' ejicere." 

Cerasque recidere inanes.] Servius 
seems to understand the Poet to 
mean, that some wax should be cut 
into small pieces, and given the bees 
for nourishment J in which he is fol- 
lowed by May ; 

Give them cut waxe. 

But he is certainly to be understood 
of taking away the superfluous wax, 
lest the empty cells should afford 
room for noxious animals. Thus 
Columella': " Higinius quidem in 
^' eo libro, quem de apibus scripsit j 
" Aristoniachus, inquit, hoc modo 
**^ succurrendum laborantibus exis- 
'* timat : Primum, ut omnes vitiosi 
" favi tollantur, et cibus ex integro 
" recens ponatur: deinde ut fumi- 
" gentur." 

242. Ignotus stellio.] The stellio 
is a small spotted lizard, called also 
a swift. The Poet sails it ignotus, 
because of its creeping into holes 
and corners. 

Adedit.] Pierius found adhcesit in 
the Roman manuscript, which lie 
takes to be a corrupt reading. 

243. Et.] Et is left out in some 
editions ; but Pierius says it is re- 
tained in all the ancient manu- 
scripts. 

Lucifugis blattis.] The blatla is an 
insect something like a beetle : some 
3 D 



386 



P. VmOILII MARONIS 



tlie drone also that sits, with- 
out labouring, at the repast 
belonging lo another, or the 
fierce hornet has engaged them 
with unequal arms, or the 
dreadful race of moths, or the 
s{)ider hated by Minerva 
hangs her loose nets at their 
doors. The more they are 
exhausted, the more pains will 
they take to repair the rUins 
of tlieir falling family, and 
will fill np their cells, and 
form their combs of flowers. 
But, seeing life afflicts bees 
also with our misfortunes, if 
their bodies shall languish 
with a sad disease, which you 
may know by certain signs; 
immediately the sick change 
their colour ; a horrid leanness 
deforms their countenances; 
then they carry the bodies of 
the dead out of their houses. 



Immunisquesedens aliena ad pabula fucUs, 
Aut asper crabro imparibus se immiscuit armis; 
Aut dirum tineae genus, aut invisa Minefvae 246 
Laxos in foribus suspendit aranea casses. 
Quo magis exhaustse fuerint, hoc acrius oranes 
Incumbent generis lapsi sarcire ruinas, 
Complebuntque foros, et floribus horrea texent. 
Si vero, quoniam casus apibus quoque nostros 
Vita tulit, tristi languebunt corpora morbo, 
Quod jam non dubiis poteris cognoscere signis; 
Continuo est aegris alius color : horrida vultum 
Deformat macies ; turn corpora luce carentum 



take the cock-roch to be the blatta. 
They are called lucifugce, because 
they do not appear by day-light. 

245. CrahroJ] The hornet is an 
insect like a wasp, but twice as big. 

Imparibus armis.'] This insect is 
too large and strong for the bees to 
encounter with it. 

Immiscuit.'] In one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts it is miscuit, 

246. Dirum tinece genus^ Many 
read durum : but Pierius found dirum 
in most of the ancient manuscripts. 
In the King's, the Bodleian, and in 
one of the Arundelian manuscripts 
It is durum. But dirum is generally 
received. Either of these readings 
seems to be good. 

The tinea is the moth, that eats 
garments and many other things. 

Invisa MinervcE aranea,'] Arachne, 
a Lydian maid, disputed with Mi- 
nerva the preference in weaving 
tapestry. Arachne performed her 
work to admiration. But as she 
had represented in it the crimes of 
several of the Gods, Minerva in a 
rage destroyed it : at which Arachne, 
being grieved, hanged herself. The 
Goddess in compassion changed her 
to a spider. This fable is related in the 
fifth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. 



Servius and other grammarians 
observe, that we ought to write 
araneus,m the masculine gender: 
but both Virgil and Ovid use ara- 
nea. 

248. Quo magis exhaustce, &c.] 
It has been observed by the writers 
on Agriculture, that if the bees have 
too much honey left them, they will 
be idle; whereas if you leave them 
but little, they will be diligent in 
repairing their loss. 

251. Si vero, &c.] He speaks of 
the diseases of bees, and the reme- 
dies for them, whence he takes oc- 
casion to give a beautiful description 
of a plant, which he calls Amellus. 

According to Pierius, the oblong 
manuscript has sin instead of si. 

254. Horrida vulium deformat 
macies.] In one of the Arundelian 
manuscripts it is d'lfformat. 

Varro observes, that a rough look 
is a sign that the bees are sick, un- 
less it is about the time of their be- 
ginning to work; for then they look 
rough with labour, and grow lean : 
" Minus valentium signa si sunt pi- 
" losse et liorridse, ut pulverulentae, 
'^ nisi opificii easurget tern pus: turn 
*' enim propter laborem asperantur, 
*' ac macescunt." 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



387 



Exportant tectis, et tristia funera ducunt. 
Aut illae pedibus connexae ad limina pendent, 
Aut intus clausis cunctantur in aedibus omnes, 
Ignavaeque fame et contracto frigore pigrae. 
Turn sonus auditur gravior, tractimque susur- 
rant, 260 

Frigidus ut quondam sylvis immurmurat aiister; 
Ut mare soUicitum stridet refluentibus undis, 
:^stuat ut clausis rapid us fornacibus ignis. 
Hie jam galbaneos suadebo incendere odores, 



and make mournful proces- 
sions. Or else they hang at 
the entrance with clinging 
feet, or all of thera loiter 
within their closed up doors, 
being faint with hunger, and 
sluggish with contracted cold. 
Then a <leeper sound is heard, 
and they make a drawling 
hum; as when a cold south 
wind sometimes rustles in the 
woods, or the troubled sea 
murmurs at the reflux of the 
waters, or as fire roars in a 
pent up furnace. In this case 
I would advise to burn strong 
scented galbanum, 



256. Tristia funera ducunt.'] Ari- 
stotle only says the bees bring out 
those which die in the hive : Tas ^' 

g|6>. Pliny says they accompany the 
dead bodies after the manner of n 
funeral procession : '' Quin et mor- 
'' bos suapte natura sentiunt. Index 
*' eorum tristitia torpens, et cum 
" ante fores in leporem soils pro- 
*' motis alise cibos ministrant, cum 
" defunctas progerunt, funeranti- 
" umque more comitantur exe- 
" quias." Dryden has amplified 
what the Poet says of the funeral 
procession : 

And crowds of dead, that never must 

return 
To their lov'd hives, in decent pomp are 

borne : 
Their friends attend the herse, the next 

relations mourn. 

257. Pedibus connexa.'] " I do 
*' not think that a cluster is meant 
** in this place, which is afterward 
"mentioned as a sign of joy: it 
" seems rather to be meant of a few 
" bees, which being either dead or 
" faint, hang by their feet about the 
*' entrance," RuiEUs. 

260. Tractimque.'] IntheBodleian 
manuscript it is tractuque. 

Frigidus ut quondam, &c.j For 
the epithet /ri^tc/ws, see the note on 



book iii, ver. 279- For quondam, 
see the note on book iii. ver. gg. 

These three similies are taken 
from the fourteenth Iliad: 

Owrs ia.'ktt.aavii KVfica roffov (ioda ^or) ;^s^ffav 
Ovrt -Ttv^oi TOffffof yi ttot) ^^oftos cci^o/nivoio. 
Out avi/^oi r'offtroi ys ttot) ^^virh uyptxo' 

fXOlfftV 

'R'ffvii, offTi fioi'kiff'ra. fAtya (i^ifurai ^aki- 

Not half so loud the bellowing deeps re- 
sound, 

When stormy winds disclose the dark 
profound ; 

Less loud the winds, that from th' iEolian 
hall 

Roar through the woods, and make whole 
forests fall; 

Less loud the woods, when flames in tor- 
rents pour. 

Catch the dry mountain, and its shades 
devour. 

Mr, Pope. 

Here, as Mr. Pope observes, Virgil 
has beautifully softened these simi- 
lies, and, by a kind of parody, ap- 
plied them to the buzzing of a bee- 
hive. 

Sylvis.] Pierius found sylvas in 
the Lombard manuscript. 

262. Ut.] Pierius found aut in 
the Medicean manuscript. It is aut 
also in the King's manuscript. But 
ut is certainly the true reading. 

264!. Hie] In the King's, and in 
3 D 2 



388 



R VIRGILII MARONIS 



and to pttt in honey through 
canals of reed, softly persuail- 
ing the weary bees, and invit- 
ing them to their well known 
food. It will be of service 
also to add thetaste of ponnded 
galls, and dried roses, or wine 
thickened over the fire, or 
raisins from the Psythian vine, 
and Cecropian thyme, and 
strong smelling ceutaary. 



Mellaque arundineis inferre canalibus, ultro 965 
Hortantem, et fessas ad pabula nota vocantem. 
Proderit et tunsum gallae admiscere saporem, 
Arentesque rosas, aut igni pinguia multo 
Defruta, vel psythia passos de vite racemos, 
Cecropiumque thymum, et grave olentia cen- 
taurea. 270 



one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, it is 
hinc. 

Galbaneos odores.'] See the note 
on book iii. ver. 415. 

Columella has mentioned Galba- 
num and the other medicines here 
spoken of, which he seems to borrow 
from Virgil : *' Nee non etiam ille 
" morbus maxime est conspicuus, 
" quihorridas contractasque carpit, 
" cum frequenter aliae mortuarum 
" corpora domiciliis suis efferunt, 
'* allae intra tecta, ut in publico 
" luctu, moesto silentio torpent. Id 
" cum accidit, arundineis infusi ca- 
*' nalibus offeruntur cibi, maxime 
'* decocti mellis, et cum galla vel 
" arida rosa detriti. Galbanum 
*' etiam^ ut ejus odore medicentur, 
** incendi convenit, passoque et de- 
" fruto vetere fessas sustinere." 

265. Mella.] We learn from the 
passage just now cited from Colu- 
mella, that the honey should be 
boiled. 

267. Tunsum.^ It is tonsum in 
the Bodleian, and in one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts, and in several 
of the old editions. 

GallcB.'] The gall is an excres- 
cence or nest of an insect, formed 
on the oaks in Italy, after the same 
manner that oak-apples are in Eng- 
land. All parts of the oak, espe- 
cially the galls, are astringent ; they 
are very proper therefore for the 
purging, to which bees are subject 
in the spring, occasioned by their 
feeding greedily upon spurge after 



their winter penury, according to 
Columella : ** Maximus autem an- 
" nuus earum labor est initio veris, 
" quo tithymalli floret frutex, et 
*' quo sameram ulmi promunt : 
*' namque sicut novis pomis, ita his 
" primitivis floribus illectae, avide 
" vescuntur post hybernam famem, 
*' nil alioquin citra satietatem, tali 
" nocente cibo, quo se cum affatim 
'* repleverint, profluvio alvi, nisi 
" celeriter succurritur, intereunt : 
'' nam et tithymallus majorum quo- 
'' que animalium ventrem solvit, et 
" proprie ulmus apium." 

Admiscere.] In the King's ma- 
nuscript it is immiscere. 

268. Arentesque.'] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is ardentesque, 
which is manifestly wrong. 

269. PsythicE passos de vite race- 
mos.] See the note on book ii. v^er. 
93. 

270. Cecropiumque thymum.'] See 
the notes on ver. 112, and I77. 

Grave olentia centaurea.] Lu- 
cretius has tristia centaurea. This 
herb was so called from the centaur 
Chiron, who was said to be thereby 
cured of a wound accidentally in- 
flicted by an arrow of Hercules, ac- 
cording to Pliny: *' Centaurea cu- 
'* ratus dicitur Chiron cum Hercu- 
" lis excepti hospitio pertractanti 
" arma, sagitta excidisset in pedem, 
" quare aliqui Chironion vocant.*' 
There are two sorts of centaury, 
the greater and the less, which have 
no other similitude, than in the 



GEORG. LTB. IV 



389 



Est etiam flos in pratis, cui nomen amello 
Fecere agricola?, facilis quaerentibus herba. 
Namque uno ingentem tollit de cespite sylvam. 
Aureus ipse ; sed in foliis, quae plurima circum 



Wc alsd bavc a (lower in the 
meadows, which the country 
people call Anielliis: the herb 
IS very easy to be found, for 
the root, which consists of a 
great bunch of fibres, sends- 
forth a vast number of stalks. 
The flower itself is of a golden 
colour, surrounded 



bitterness of their taste. The 
greater is cultivated in gardens, the 
less grows wild in England in many 
places, and is the best known. 

271. Est etiam flos in pratis, &c.] 
I think we may venture to affirm, 
that the plant here described is the 
Asler Afticus, or purple Italian Star- 
wort. But let us see how Virgil's 
description agrees with the^^^er At- 
ticus. Ray says it is common in 
the uncultivated valleys of Italy, 
Sicily, and Narbonne. " Nascitur 
" incultis et asperis convallibus, in 
" Italia, Sicilia, et Gallia Narbo- 
'' nensi passim obvius." There- 
fore it is very easy to be found, fa- 
cilis gucerentibus herba. The root 
consists of a great bunch of fibres, as 
I have rendered uno de cespite, for I 
take cespes in this place not to sig- 
nify the earth or turf, but radix ces- 
pitosa, a root whose fibres are thick 
matted together so as to form a kind 
of turf. Non de terra, sed de radice, 
says Phylargyrius. From this root 
arise a vast number of stalks, which 
Virgil poetically calls a great wood, 
ingentem sylvam. The flower is of 
that sort which botanists call a ra- 
diated discous flower; the disk is 
yellow, and the ray purple. To 
make this plain to those who are 
not acquainted with botany, I have 
added a figure of this plant. A, re- 
presents the yellow disk, which Vir- 
gil calls the flower itself: aureus 
ipse. B, represents the rays or pur- 
ple leaves which surround the flower; 
foliis, quce plurima circumfunduntur, 
vioUe sublucet purpura nigrce. 

Cui nomen amello.~\ He uses the 
dative case here after the manner of 



the Greeks ; as in other places^ 
** Cui nomen lulo," and ** Cui Re- 
*' mulo cognomen erat." 

272. Fecere agricolce.'] The Poet 
tells us Amellus is a rustic name, 
not that by which it was known at 
Rome, and among the writers of 
natural history. 

273. Uno.'] It is imo in one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts, and in se- 
veral old printed editions, and in 
most manuscript copies, according 
to Pierius : but uno is generally re- 
ceived, as the true reading. 

274. Aureus ipse, &c.] Virgil 
plainly speaks of the flower, as be- 
ing golden or yellow, which Colu- 
mella mistook, not being acquainted 
with this herb himself; for he 
makes it a yellow shrub with pur- 
ple flowers : *' Optime tamen facit 
" amelli radix, cujus est frutex lu- 
*' tens, purpureus flos." Ruaeus 
rightly interprets this description of 
Virgil : " Quippe uno e cespite eri- 
" git magnam copiam caulium : au- 
*' reus ipse est, sed purpura violae 
" nigricantis sublucet in foliis, quae 
" multa in orbemambiunt floscula." 
But our translators have greatly 
erred : for May represents the leaves 
of the stalk as being purple : 

For from one roote he spreads a wood 

of boughes, 
W/iOse many leaves, although the flower 

be gold, 
Black violets dimme purple colour hold. 

Addison has very much deviated 
from the sense of his author : 

A mighty spring works in its root, and 

cleaves 
The sprouting stalk, and shews itself in 

leaves : 



390 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



with a great number of leaves, 
which are purple, like viulels. 
Tlie altars of the gods are 
often adorned with wreaths 
of these flowers. It has a 
bitterish taste. The shepherds 
gather it in the open valleys, 
and near the winding stream 
of the river Mella. 13oil the 
roots of this herb in the best 
flavoured wine, and place 
baskets full of Ihera before the 
door of the hive. B-t if the 
■ whole stock shall tail any 
one on a sodden, and be shall 
not know how to repair his 
loss by a new family, it will 
be time to unfold the memo- 
rable discovery of iheArcadian 
hi aster. 



Funduntur, violae sublucet purpura nigroe. 275 
Saspe deum nexis ornatae torquibus arae. 
Asper in ore sapor. Tonsis in vallibus ilium 
Pastores, et curva legunt prope flumina Mellae. 
Hujus odorato radices incoque Baccho, 
Pabulaque in foribus plenis appone canistris. 
Sed si quern proles subito defecerit omnis, 
Nee, genus unde novae stirpis revocetur, habebit, 
Tempus et Arcadii memoranda inventa magistri 



The flow'r itself is of a golden hue. 
The leaves inclining to a darker blue. 
The leaves shoot thick about the flow'r, 

and grow 
Into a bush, and shade the turf below. 
* 
Dryden took the folia quce plurima 
circumfunduntur to be the branches 
of the plant : 

For from one root the rising stem be- 
stows 

A wood of leaves, and vVlet purple 
loughs : 

The flow'r itself is glorious to behold, 

And shines on altars like refulgent 
gold. 

Dr. Trapp supposes the stem to be 
golden, and the leaves to be purple: 

For from one turf a mighty grove it 

bears : 
Its stem of golden hue, but in its leaves, 
Which copious round it sprout, the purple 

teint 
Of deep-dy'd violets more glossy shines. 

275. Violce vigrcB.'\ The com- 
mon violet. It is called black, from 
its dark purple colour. Thus Theo- 
critus : KX) TO <ov f^iXctv IvTl. 

277- Tonsis in vallibus.'] Servius 
interprets this non sylvosis." Unde^," 
says he/' est contraintonsimontes." 
Jj3. Cerda takes it to mean after 
mowing: " Cum valles jam sunt 
" tonsae, et demessae segetes." Ser- 
vius's sense agrees best with the 
account which Ray gives of the 
place where it grows. Ruaeus fol- 
Icnvs La Cerda^ rendering this pas- 



sage in pratis demessis. Dr. Trapp 
adheres to this interpretation. 



the swains. 



In new mow'd vales, near Mella's wind- 
ing stream 
Gather this herb. 

Though perhaps it may mean in 
valleys where cattle have grazed ; for 
tondeo is used for grazing j as 
'' Tondent dumeta juvenci." 

27s. Flumina Mellw.'] One of the 
Arundelian manuscripts and the 
Cambridge manuscript have it 
Amellce. La Cerda reads Melee. 
There are several rivers of this 
name ; but that which Virgil means 
here is a river of Lombardy. 

280. Appone.'] Pierius tells us 
that it is expone in the Roman and 
some other manuscripts, 

281. Sed si quern proles, &c.] The 
Poet having already spoken of the 
ways of driving noxious animals 
from the bees, and of the method of 
curing their diseases, now proceeds 
to describe the manner after which 
the total loss of them may be. re^ 
paired, which he tells us was prac- 
tised by the Egyptians. 

Si quern.] Pierius found siquidem 
in the Medicean and other ancient 
manuscripts, I find it also in the 
Bodleian, and in one of the Arunde- 
lian manuscripts, andin some printed 
editions. 

283. Arcadii magistri.] The Ar» 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



391 



Pandere, quoque modo caesis jam saepe juvencis bees lla^e oiiSffen^odS 

. . oof '^'"""' "'^''" corrupted gore, I 

Insincerus apes tulerit cruor, altius omnem %o5 shMii mmtionihe whole story 

A ' at large, (racing it back from 

-r\ T • , 1 • • P its tirsi source. For whtre the 

iixpediam prima repetens ab origme lamam. happy nation of Pciuan 
Nam qua Pellaei gens fortunata Canopi 



cadian master is Aristseus. See the 
note on ver. 317. 

287. Nc^ qua Pellasi &c.] These 
seven verses have greatly exercised 
the skill of the commentators, who 
have given very different interpre- 
tations of them. La Cerda con- 
tends, that the Poet, in the three 
first lines, describes Egypt ; and in 
the rest, Persia. That the three 
first relate to Egypt, is universally 
agreed: the difficulty consists in 
solving the other. He takes the 
amnts devexus ah Indis to be the In- 
dus, to which Ptolomy has assigned 
seven mouths, as well as to the Nile. 
Now as the Indus does without 
doubt descend from the Indians pro- 
perly so called, as it really presses 
the borders of Persia, and as it has 
seven mouths, he thinks it agrees 
better with the Poet's description 
than the Nile, between which and 
Persia all Arabia is interposed. As 
for ver, ^91* he gets clear of that by 
endeavouring to prove it not to be 
genuine, and excluding it from the 
text. Hardouin also understands 
the Poet to speak of the Indus, but 
retains the verse which La Cerda 
rejects. He observes, that there 
was an island called Prasiane, 
formed by the mouths of the Indus, 
as the Delta was by those of the 
Nile. He derives the name of Pra- 
siane from x^ctnoi, viridis, and thence 
imagines, that Virgil meant this 
island by viridem jEgyptum. Huet 
opposes his learned countryman, 
and understands the whole passage 
to relate to Egypt. As for the Nile 
being derived from India, he tells 
us it was the universal opinion of 
the ancients, that this river rose in 



India, which he confirms by the au- 
thority of Alexander, who thought 
he had found the source of the Nile, 
when he arrived at the Indus. Ru- 
SEUS also rejects the Indus, inter- 
preting the whole passage concern- 
ing the Nile, deriving it from the 
Ethiopians, who were called In- 
dians by the ancients. He inter- 
prets 

Quaqtie pJiaretratoe vicinia Persidis urget, 

" where the countries bordering 
" on the quivered Persians touch 
" Egypt." These countries, he says, 
are Arabia, Syria, &c. all which are 
comprehended by the Poet under the 
name of Persia, because they were 
all subdued by Cyrus, and his son 
Cambyses. Catrou proposes a new 
solution of this difficult passage. He 
supposes Virgil to mean the whole 
course of the Nile, the lower Egypt 
in the three first verses, the upper 
Egypt in the two next,and thesource 
of the Nile in the two last, conclud- 
ing with ver. 294. which plainly 
shews that the Poet intended to de- 
scribe only one country. For my 
own part, I take Virgil, by all that 
he has here said, to mean only a de- 
scription of the Delta, or lower 
Egypt. Canobus is the west angle 
of that triangular region, Pelusium is 
the east angle, being nearest to Per- 
sia, and the south angle is the point, 
where theNile is divided, to form the 
Delta. I shall endeavour to explain 
what has been said, in the following 
notes on the particular expressions. 
Fellcei Canopi.'] Strabo tells us, 
that this city was so called from Ca- 
nopus the pilot of Menelaus, who 
died there, and that it is a hundred 
and twenty stadia distant from Alex* 



392 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



S»atfw'th'f.s''JJ^^^^^ Accolit effuso stagnantem flumine Nilum, 

iDg waters, and is carried . . . , . « t 

round about its own fields in ii,t circum Dictis vchitur sua Tura faselis ; 

painted gallej's; and where i^ ' 

*even from tt' su'n'-burnt 7n° Quaque pharctratse viciiiia Persidis urget, 290 

dians presses the borders of " 

2rS'Egypt"^ch"b1ack oS ^t virideiii JEgyptum nigra fcecundat arena'. 



tova-iv, iTFavvfAoq KetvaQov rev MsnXeicv 
xvZigvvirov, aTTodavovTiig ecvrodt. Pella, 
according to the same author, was 
accounted the metropolis of Mace- 
donia, being the birth-place both of 
Philip and Alexander: TJjv dl IleA- 
Aeew eoTTFig f^viT^OTroXiv yiyeviveci tZv M»- 
x-i^ovav rhv (^iXiTrTrov Kxi 'AM^dvd^ov 
'^UT^idec. The city Canopus gives 
name to one of the most considerable 
mouths of the Nile, being the near- 
est to the city, which Alexander 
built in Egypt, and called from his 
own name Alexandria. Therefore 
Virgil describes the west side of 
the Delta, by calling it the Pellsean 
Canopus, on account of the neigh- 
bourhood of Alexandria. 

Gens for lunata.'] The inhabitants 
of this part of Egypt are called hap- 
py on account of the great fertility 
of their country. 

288. Accolit effuso stagnantem 
flumine Nilumr\ Strabo tells us, 
that when the Nile overflows, the 
whole country is covered with water, 
except Iheir habitations, which are 
built either upon natural hills, or 
upon banks raised by art, which at 
that time have the appearance of so 
many islands : 'Ev Ti txTs ccvx'Zua-ia-i 
rov Nit'Xcv, fcuXvTrTireti Trxret, xxt TrtXx- 
yiC^i, 5rX«i» im oix^iriav' uvTxi ¥ Im 
y^o(pav ecvTo^vav, h j^iffAdrav t^^vvrxi, 
TToXstg n a.^ioXoy6i Keel Kafixi, vwitfiva-ect 
xocrot TKv TTo^ahv o'4'<>'. 

290. Pharetratce vicinia Persidis.'] 
The Persians were famous for rid- 
ing, hunting, and shooting arrows. 
We are not to understand the Poet 
in this place, as speaking of Per- 
sia strictly so called, which was 



bounded on the west by Susiana 
and Media, on the north by Parthia, 
on the east by Caramania, and on 
the south by the Persian gulph, but 
of the empire of those people ex- 
tended by Cyrus. Xenophon tells 
us that great monarch left behind 
him an empire bounded on the east 
by the mare erythrceum, on the north 
by the Black sea, on the west by 
Cyprus and Egypt, and on the 
south by Ethiopia : K«/ Ix rovrov riiv 
u.^^yiv a^i^iv ccvtS tt^o^ '{u jttsv, ii l^v6pei 
6eiXecrrei' ■srgas «egxT6> §e, o Ei;|j*»65 
Wo'vTfl?. 7rg05 IcTTFi^XV qI, KuTgoj Kcii A'i- 
yvTCTog. 9rgoj fcttrnf^/i^iciv di AtdtoTrtet. 
Here then we see plainly how the 
Nile may press the borders of Per- 
sia, since the Persians had extended 
their dominion as far as to Egypt, 
The Poet bad before spoken of the 
west side of the Delta under the 
name of Canopus : and now he 
expresses the east side, or Pelusian 
mouth of the Nile, as bordering on 
the empire of the Persians. Catrou 
finds some colonies of Persians 
seated on each side of the Upper 
Egypt, which he thinks the Poet 
means in this verse. 

291. Viridem Mgyptum.'] Har- 
douin thinks the epithet viridis, 
applied to Egypt, is cold and in- 
animated: this being added to an- 
other observation, that Virgil does 
not use to be guilty of such tau- 
tology, as to make a double de- 
scription of the same place, he con- 
cludes, that the Poet must speak of 
two difiFerent countries. Then find- 
ing mention in Pliny of a triangular 
island at the mouth of the Indus, 
he ventures to affirm, that Virgil 
meant this island by viridem M- 



\ 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



393 



Et diversa ruens septem discurrit in ora 



and poitriitg along divides it- 
self into seven mouths: 



gyptum, because it resembled the 
lower Egypt or Delta, in its trian- 
gular shape, and that the epithet 
viridis is only a translation of Pra- 
siane. But viridis is by no means a 
cold epithet for Egypt, being very 
proper to express the great fertility 
of that country, when overflowed 
by the Nile. As for the island 
Prasiane, Pliny does not say it is 
triangular. I do not find any 
mention of it, except in the twenti- 
eth chapter of the sixth book, where 
he says it is a very large island, and 
that there is another near it named 
Patale : *' Amplissimam insulam 
" efficiens, quae Prasianenominatur, 
" et aliam minorem quae Patale." 
As for Patale, he says in the next 
chapter, that it is triangular : " Sed 
" ante sunt aliae, Patale, quam sig- 
" nificavimus, in ipsis faucibus Indi 
*^ triquetra figura ccxx. M. pass. 
*' latitudine." But he no where 
says any thing of its greenness or 
fertility. And to me it appears a 
great %'iolence to make Virgil call 
two Indian islands green Egypt, be- 
cause one of them resembles it in 
shape, and the other is derived from 
a Greek word signifying green ; 
which etymology, however, is not 
very certain, since the learned 
father himself confesses in another 
place, that Prasiane is derived from 
the name of the inhabitants, who 
were called Prasii: " Prasiane, a 
** Prasiis, Indi amnis accolis, quo- 
" rum ditionis fuit, nomen invenlt." 
As for the imaginary tautology, it 
has been observed already, that 
Virgil does not describe the same 
place twice ; but only distinguishes 
Egypt, by describing the two sides 
of the triangle, within which it is 
contained. 

Nigra are7ia.'] La Cerda thinks 
these words are a proofs that Virgil 



did not mean Egypt, because the 
soil of the Nile is ooze, and not 
sand. But arena is frequer^tly used 
for any sort of soil ; and besides it 
has been observed by travellers of 
the best credit, that the natural soil 
of Egypt is sand. 

292. Sepiem discurrit in ora.'] 
The seven mouths of the Nile are 
so very famous, and so frequently 
spoken of, that it may seem un- 
necessary to say any thing here 
concerning them. But as the sense 
of this passage very much depends 
on a right understanding of the 
form of the lower Egypt, I shall 
follow the description given of it 
by Strabo. This famous geogra- 
pher observes, that the Nile flows 
directly northward, from the borders 
of Ethiopia, till it comes to the 
Delta, where being divided as from 
a vertex, it makes a triangular 
figure : the sides of the triangle are 
two channels of the Nile, running 
down on each side rf it to the sea ; 
that on the right hand to Pelusium, 
and that on the left to Canopus and 
Heraclium : and the base is the 
seacoast between Pelusium and 
Heraclium. Thus the island is en- 
compassed by the sea, and two 
channels of the Nile ^ and is called 
Delta, because it resembles the 
Greek letter A : 'Atto yu^ rm AiSio- 

TTixm Ti^^ivsjv, p«7 Itt ivdstoig TT^Oi; CJg- 
XToyj 6 Ng^Aa?, 'iag rev fcaXovf^ivov y^a- 
^lov AgArcfr. tir Itt/ xc^viph o-yi^of^ivog 
NsTAo?, eog (pvioriv TLxdrav, ag av r^i- 
yavov Kopv^^v uTTonXii rov tottov tovtov 
TrXiv^xg di r6v r^iymov ret, (ryi(^ofAtvoi 

QxT^drrviq, ro fclv h ?g|<i5 tk? kocxo, Ua- 
Xovcriov. ro ^' h ugia-r^ci rvig xctra, Kci- 
v6t>Qov, Koii ro ^A'/j<r/oy 'H^daXuov, Tr^otra- 
yo^ivof^ivov /ioccTiv 21 rhv Tvoc^u.'h.ictv rhv 
(A.%TX%v rov XlYiXovTiov' Koci rov H^x- 
kMiov' Tkyovz 21 y> y^irog 2« rs rKg P«- 
3 E 



394 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



exp'^utioK^lhfs'^'rt! "^Z Usque coloratis amnis devexus ab Indis : 

they choose out a small place, >-..., 

S^cT^^J^T^^'forThls^r". ^"""is 1" ^ac certam regio jacit arte salutem. 

^^^^' Exiguus primum, atque ipsos contractus ad usus 



XxTTvig, xMt rZv piVfAxraiv Mf£^o7y rev 
7roTct[Aov. KXi KecXiTreci AsATflf, 2ic6 t«v 
of*,oioTnrec rov a-^Hf^ccTog. A little af- 
terwards he sets down the names 
of the seven mouths of this river : 
MgTfift ^6 crof^iec to Kay«S<xo» gW* to BoA- 

C«T<*o'v ilrcC TO 'ZiQtiViriKOV X.Xt TO OflfT- 
»<>to'» T«l ^£ (^XTVIkS G-VVXTTrU TO 

Mg»^>}V<ov giToc TO TuvtrtKoVj Kxt nMv- 
voucy TOK TlviXcvTtxKov . I wonder 
none of the commentators have 
proposed the Ganges, as the river 
here meant j for Virgil himself, in 
the ninth JLneid, describes it as 
having seven mouths like the Nile: 

■ Medio dux agmine Tur- 

nus 

Vertitur arma tenens, et toto vertice 
supra est. 

Ceu septem surgens sedatis omnibus altus 

Per taciturn Ganges: aut pingui flu- 
mine Nilus, 

Cum refluit campis, et jam se condidit 
alveo. 

293. Coloratis amnis devexus ab 
Indis.^ Huet, to solve the difficulty 
of the Nile's being said to flow 
from the Indians, has discovered, 
that the ancients imagined the 
source of the Nile to be in India 
properly so called, which doctrine 
he supports by a relation, that 
Alexander thought he had found it 
in India. But this was far from 
being a received opinion in Virgil's 
time. For Strabo informs us, 
that Alexander himself was con- 
vinced of his error. When Alex- 
ander, says he, saw crocodiles in 
the Hydaspes, and Egyptian beans 
in the Acesine, he fancied he had 
found the source of the Nile, and 
prepared a fleet in order to invade 
Egypt that way. But he soon 
found it was impossible to put it in 
execution. For there are many 



rivers and dangerous channels be- 
tween, and above all the ocean, into 
which all the rivers of India empty 
themselves, and then there is Aria- 
na, and the Persian and Arabian 
gulphs, and all Arabia and Troglo- 
dytica : 'AAg'|«t»^go» ^' g» yAi rS 'Y^at- 
irTTtf xpox60UXevg tooirx, \i oi rS Axg- 
triv*! xveifACvg AiyVTrrlovg, %v^nxkixi 2o- 
|«< rxg rov NiiXov Tniydg, x-xi firx^x- 
G-K6vci^tB-6xi orroMi stg rti* A'lyvTrrof, ag 
rS TTcrxfAo rovra f^i^^t IziTo^ TrXivro- 
fctvov' fiiK^lv ^ vFTi^ov yvavxi, ^iori ev 
dvvxrxi ^XTTia-i. Msc-ok y«g (ZiyeiXot 
'XOTxuoi, Kx] diTvx Dii&px. 'Clxiecvig ult 
^^arcv, itg o» ocoidoxa-ii 01 lioixot ^uvrtg 
TTcrufAo/. iTFiirx, *i 'A^ixti}, Kui Hi^- 
<riKog xo'^TTOf, xect 'Apci/Btog, xxi xvrn « 
'AgatS/flC, »xi *i T ^uyXcihvriici. But 

there is no occasion to have re- 
course to so absurd an opinion, if 
any did entertain it, since it is easy 
to prove that the Ethiopians, from 
whose country the Nile is allowed 
to descend, were frequently called 
Indians by the ancients. Thus our 
Poet himself, in the eighth ^neid, 
mentions Indians among the nations 
that assisted Anthony and Cleo- 
patra; 

Omnis eo terrore ^gyptus et 

Indus, 
Omnis Arabs, omnes verterunt terga 

Sabaei. 

Here the Indians are generally al- 
lowed to be the Ethiopians, for it 
does not appear, that there were 
any oriental Indians in that army. 

294. Omnis regio.~\ By these 
words the Poet plainly shews that 
he has been speaking only of one 
country. 

295. Exiguus primum, &c.] It 
was the general opinion of anti- 
quity, that bees were produced from 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



395 



Eligitur locus : hunc angustique imbrice tecti 
Parietibusque premunt arctis, et quatuor addunt, 
Quatuor a ventis obliqua luce fenestras. 298 
Turn vitulus, bima curvans jam cornua fronte, 
Quaeritur; huic geminae nares, et spiritus oris 
Multa reluctant! obstruitur, plagisque perempto 
Tunsa per integram solvuntur viscera pellem. 
Sic positum in clauso linquunt, et ramea costis 
Subjiciuntfragmenta5thymum,casiasquerecentes. 
Hoc geritur, zephyris primum impellentibus 
undas, 305 

Ante novis rubeant quam prata coloribus, ante 
Garrula quam tignis nidum suspendat hirundo. 



Ihis they straiten with a 
narrow roof, and confined 
walls: and add four windows 
receiving an oblique light 
from the four quarters. Then 
they seek a steer of two years 
that just bends his horns : and 
whilst he stfuggles mightily 
they close up both liis nostrils, 
and the breath of his mouth ; 
and when he is bruised to 
death, his crushed bowels 
putrify, the skin remaining 
entire. Being thus placed, 
they leave him shut np : and 
put sprigs under him, thyme 
and fresh casia. This is done 
when the zephyrs first begin 
to stir the waters, before the 
meadows blush with new 
colours, before the chattering 
swallow hangs her nest upon 
the rafters. 



the putrid bodies of cattle. Varro 
says they are called /Sovyayui by the 
Greeks, because they arise from 
putrified bullocks : " Denique ex 
** hoc putrefacto nasci dulcissirnas 
*' apes mellis matres, a quo eas 
*' Graeci fiovyoncc^ appellant." And 
in another place he mentions their 
risin-g from these putrid animals, 
and quotes the authority of Arche- 
laus, who says bees proceed from 
bullocks, and wasps from horses: 
** Apes nascuntur partim exapibus, 
*' partim ex bubulo corpore putre- 
" facto. Itaque Archelaus in epi- 
** grammate ait eas esse 

'* — Boos <p0tvo/Aivns -rttoiyifiivei rixva. 

" Idem : 

** Icr^uv fih ff(priKis ytvtoij fAotr^uv li fjiX- 
" "KiffffctiV 

Above all, we have the authority of 
the holy Scriptures, that bees will 
proceed from the putrid carcase of 
an animal. For, as we read in the 
fourteenth chapter of the book of 
Judges, ♦' Samson went down, and 
" his father, and his mother, to 
" Timnath, and came to the vine- 
" yards of Timnath : and behold a 



" young lion roared against him. 
" And the Spirit of the Lord came 
'^ mightily upon him, and he rent 
'* him as he would have rent a kid 
''.... and after a time , ... he 
" turned aside to see the carcase 
'*^ of the lion, and behold there was 
" a swarm of bees, and honey in 
" the carcase of the lion." It is 
not however to be imagined, that 
insects are generated from a putre- 
faction. The truth is, such car- 
cases are a proper receptacle for 
their young; and therefore the 
female parent chooses there to lay 
her eggs, that the warmth of the 
fermentingjuices may help to hatch 
them, 

301. Obstruitur.'\ Fulvius Ursi- 
nus says it is obsuitur in the old 
Colotian manuscript. 

304. Thymum.'] See the note on 
ver, 122. 

Casias.'] See the note on book 
ii. ver. 213. 

205. Zephyris primum impellenii- 
bus unclas.'] This wind is said by 
Pliny to begin to blow about the 
eighth of February. See the note 
on book iii. ver. 273. 

sen. Hirundo.'] The time of the 
3e2 



396 



r. VIRGILII MARONIS 



In the mean time the mois- 
ture, growing warm in his 
tender bonts, ferments; and 
animals, wonderful to behold, 
are formed, at lirst without 
feet, but in a little while hav- 
ing also buz^ing wings, and 
continually more and more 
try the thin air: till at last 
they burst out like a shower 
pouring from the summer 
clouds ; or like arrows driven 
from the impelling string, 
when the lisrht Parthians enter 
into the battle. What god, O 
ye Muses, who invented this 
art for us! whence did thisnew 
experience of men take its rise? 
The shepherd Aristaeus fljing 
from Peneian Tempe, 



Interea teneris tepefactus in ossibus humor 
^stuat, et visenda modis animalia miris, 309 
Truiica pedum primo, mox et stridentia pennis 
Miscentur, tenuemque magis magis aera carpunt ; 
Donee, ut asstivis efFusus nubibus imber, 
Erupere ; aut ut nervo pulsante sagittae, 
Prima leves ineunt si quando prcelia Parthi. 
Quis deus banc, Musae, quis nobis extudit 
artem ? 315 

Unde nova ingressus hominum experientia cepit ? 
Pastor Aristaeus fugiens Peneia Tempe, 



swallows coming is said by Colu- 
mella to be about the twentieth or 
twenty-third of February : '* De- 
^' cimo Calendas Martii leo desinit 
" occidere,venti septentrionales,qLn 
*' vocantur ornithiae, per dies tri- 
" ginta esse solent, tum et hirundo 
" advenit :*' and " Septimo Ca- 
" lendas Martii ventosa tempestas, 
" hirundo conspicitur," Pliny says 
it is on the twenty-second: '* Oc- 
'' tavo calendas Martii hirundinis 
" visus." 

311. Tenuemque magis magis.'] 
The King's, the Bodleian, one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts, and most 
of the old editions, have tenuem 
magis ac magis. In the other of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts, it is tenu- 
emque magis ac magiSj where que is 
redundant. 

Carpunt.'] Pierius found cuptant 
in an old manuscript, which reading 
is countenanced by frigus caplabis 
opacum, and by captavit narihus 
auras. 

312. UL] It is et in one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts. 

313. Erupere; aut ut.] Pierius 
found eripuere in some ancient ma- 
nuscripts, and in others erupere 
velut. The last reading he thinks 
more sweet, and the former more 
numerous. In one of the Arun- 



delian manuscripts it is velut, and 
in one of Dr. Mead's vel ut. 

314. Parthi.] See the note on 
book jii. ver. 31. 

315. Quis deus, &c.] The Poet 
concludes the Georgicks with the 
fable of Aristaeus, which includes 
that of Orpheus and Eurydice. This 
j)aragraph contains the complaint 
of Aristaeus for the loss of his bees, 
and his mother's permission to him 
to enter the sources of the rivers. 

Extudit.] In the Bodleian, one of 
the Arundelian, and in both Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts, it is excudit. 

317. Pastor AristcBus.] I have 
already said something of Aristaeus, 
in the notes on ver. 14. of the first 
Georgick ; but as the fable of him 
takes up so considerable a part of 
the fourth, I shall say something 
more of him in this place. 

It is generally agreed , that he was 
the son of Apollo, though Cicero, 
in one of his orations against Verres, 
makes him the son of Bacchus : 
" Aristaeus, qui, ut Graeci ferunt, 
*' Liberifilius, inventor olei esse di- 
'' citur, una cum Libero paire apud 
" illos eodem erat in templo conse- 
" cratus." And yet Cicero himself, 
in his third book de Natura Deorum, 
allows him to be the son of Apollo : 
" Aristaeus, qui olivae dicitur in- 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



397 



1)18 bees, as is reported, being 
lost by disease and famine. 
the sacred 



stood mournful 



Amissis, ut fama, apibus morboque fameque, 

rn • >• J i • . 1 .«,•. » aiouu iiiuuniiui ai iiie sacrea 

1 nstis ad extremi sacrum caput adstitit amnis, ''e?** o». H'e rising stream, 

* ' grievously complaining; an<l 

Multa querens, atque hac afFatus voce parentem : iSoo^l'^cyren? 5'7noti.e?. 

-.^ ^ • • 1 . ^^-. who inhabitcst the bottom of 

Mater Cyrene, mater, quae gurgitis hujus 321 »'»» ^P"°g' 



" ventor^ApoUinisfilius." He was 
born in Libya, whither Apollo trans- 
ported his mother, in order to enjoy 
her, according to Pindar : Nvv ^' iv- 
^vMif^m TTorvid croi AiCyat di^irxi 6VK>^iu 

.... Tc$i Tcui^x ti^irui jtt/ygy 

l» -KoXv^c^vra AiZvatg. He married 
Autonoe the daughter of Cadmus, 
by whom he had Acteon. After the 
death of this son, being informed 
by the oracle of Apollo, that he 
should receive divine honours in 
the island Cea, he removed thither, 
where, offering sacrifice to Jupiter, 
he obtained the ceasing of a plague, 
and was therefore honoured by them 
as a god after his death. He is 
said also to have visited Arcadia, 
Sardinia, Sicily, and Thrace, in all 
which countries he was adored, for 
having taught mankind the uses of 
oil and honey, and the manner of 
curdling milk. The scene of the 
fable, as it is here related by Virgil, 
is placed in Thessaly. 

Peneia Tempe.l Tempe, as was 
observed in the note on book ii. 
ver. 469, is used by the poets to 
express any pleasant plain j but 
here the epithet Peneia plainly de- 
termines, that the real Thessalian 
Tempe is meant. The river Peneus 
rises in Pindus, a great mountain 
of Thessaly, and flows through the 
delightful plains of the Thessalian 
Tempe. Thus Ovid : 

Est neraus Haemoniae, praerupta quod 

undique claudit 
Sylva ; vocant^Tempe : per quae Peneus 

ab imo 
Eflfusus Pindo spumosi^ volvitur undis j 
Dejectuque gravi tenues agitantia fumos 



Nubila conducit, summasque aspergine 

sylvas 
Impluitj et sonitu plus quam vicina 

fatigat, 

A pleasant grove within JEmonia grows, 
CaWd Tempe; which high ragged cliffs 

inclose, 
Through this PeneuSf poiir'd from Pin- 

duSf raves J 
And from the bottom rowles, with foaming 

waves, 
That by steep down-falls tumbling from on 

hie, 
Ingender mists, which smoke-like, upward 

That on the dewy tops of trees distill. 
And more than neighbouring woods with 
noises fill. 

Sandys. 

Theocritus also mentions the beau- 
tiful Peneian Tempe and Pindus 
together : 

"H xara, Uivtiai xuka Ti/x'^rtUf vi xura 

319. ExiremL] Fieri us found 
exiremum in some ancient manu- 
scripts. 

Caput.'] Some understand this of 
the mouth of the river; but that 
was near Tempe, where Aristaeus 
was supposed to dwell. He for- 
sook the plains, and retired to the 
springs of the river, and the moun- 
tain Pindus. 

321. Mafer Cyrene.] Virgil makes 
Cyrene the daughter of Peneus: 
but Pindar makes her the daughter 
of Hypseus, king of the Lapithae, 
son ofthe Naiad Creusa, by Peneus: 
"Evvhv u^f^o^cicret 6iS tt yecf^ov fii^Sevri 
KovpcA ^"Y%^ao5 ivpvZlei' 05 Aet7ri6ay vtti^- 
cttXui rovruKis ^* /^eto-iMvf, l| 'ClKtxvou 
yhoi ^^as diVTi^og, ov ttots Uiv^ov xAesv- 



S98 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



'why did you bear me de- 
tested by the fates, and yet 
sprung trom the glorious race 
of gods, if, as you pretend, 
'ihymbraean Apollo is indeed 
my father? or whilhtr is 
your love for me fled ! why 
did you bid me hope for hea- 
ven I See, I lose, whilst you 
■are my mottier, even this 
glory of mortal life, which 
ti-ynig all things I had scarce 
struck out from the diligent 
care of fruits and cattle. But 
proceed, and with your own 
hand rodt up my happy 
groves ; set hostile fire to my 
stalls, and destroy my har- 
vests ; burn down my plant- 
ations, and exercise a strong 
bill against my vines; if you 
have taken such great offence 
at my praise. But his mother 
heani the voice under the bed 
of the deep river : the Nymphs 
were carding the Milesian 
wool, dyed with a full sea- 
green colour, around her; both 
Drymo an<l Xanthe, and Ligea 
and Phyllodoce, 



Ima tenes, quid me praeclara stirpe deorum, 
Si modo, quem perhibes, pater est Thymbraeus 

Apollo, 
Invisum fatis genuisti ? aut quo tibi nostri 324 
Pulsus amor ? quid me caelum sperare jubebas? 
En etiam hunc ipsum vitae mortalis honorem 
Quem mihi vix frugum et pecudum custodia 

solers 
Omnia tentanti extuderat, te matre relinquo. 
Quin age, et ipsa manu felices erue sylvas : 
Per stabulis inimicum ignem, atque interfice 

messes: 380 

Ure sata, et validam in vites molire bipennem ; 
Tanta meae si te ceperunt taedia laudis. 
At mater sonitum thalamo sub fluminis alti 
Sensit : eam circum Milesia vellera Nymphae 
Carpebant, hyali saturo fucata colore : 335 

Drymoque, Xanthoque, Ligeaque, Phyllodoce- 

que, 



Xi^st K^loir 'inxTtv Tuixg 6vyeirfi^. Al- 
most the whole ninth Pythian ode 
is taken up with the account of 
Cyrene, of which I shall give an 
abstract. This beautiful young lady 
was educated by her father, in the 
valleys of Pindus. Her whole de- 
light was in hunting wild beasts, 
which greatly tended to the secu- 
rity of her father's cattle. Apollo 
happened to see her fighting with 
a lion, and fell in love with her, in 
consequence of which he carried her 
into Africa, where she was delivered 
of our Aristaeus, and gave her name 
to the famous city Cyrene. 

323. ThymbrcEus Apollo.'] Apollo 
had this surname from Thymbra, 
a town of Troas, where he had a 
famous temple. 

328. Extuderat.'] In the King's, 
one of the Arundelian manuscripts, 



and in some of the old editions, it 
is excuderat : in both Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts it is excuterat. 

331. Bipennem.'] The bipennis is 
a sort of bill with two edges. 

324!. Sensit.] Pierius found sentit 
in some ancient manuscripts. 

Milesia vellera.] See the note on 
book iii. ver. 306. 

335. Hyali] This colour is a sea- 
green, or glass colour, y^Ao? signify- 
ing glass. 

336. Drymoque, &c.] The poets 
seem fond ofmakinglong catalogues 
of nymphs 5 as may be seen in He- 
siod. Homer, and others. 

Ruaeus gives the following ety- 
mology of their names : Drymo 
from "^^vfici, a wood of oaks j Xantho 
from |fl6>d?, yellow or golden; Ligea 
from >>iyna,, canorous; Phyllodoce 
from ^vXXovj a leaf, and Tsjc^fMi, I 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



399 



Caesariem efFusae nitidam per Candida coUa : 
Nesaee, Spioque, Thaliaque, Cymodoceque, 
Cydippeque, et flava Lycorias ; altera virgo, 



having their shining hair dif- 
fused over their snowy neck:* ; 
Nesa;e, and Spio, and Thalia, 
and Cymo<ioce, and Cydippe, 
and golden Lycorias, the one 
a virgin. 



take ; Nessee from v?ero?, an island ; 
Spio* from c-Tnlov, a den ; Thalia 
from 6etXXcjf 1 flourish j Cymodoce 
from KVfcx, a wave, and ds^of^xi, 
I take ; Cydippe from Kv^og, glory, 
and Yttttos, a horse ; Lycorias from 
XvKc^, a wolf ; Clio from «Ag/», I 
praise; Ephyrefrom (pv^a, I water; 
Opis from a>yp, uTrog a countenance j 
Deiopea from Jjjiof, ardent, and 'o^p, 
oTToi, a voice. Dryden lias added 
epithets to several of these names, 
which are not warranted either by 
the original, or their etymologies :* 

Spio with Drymo brown, and Xanthe 

fair. 
And sweet Phyllodoce, 
Opis the meek, and Deio]peia. proud, 
Nisea lofty, 
Thalia joyous f Ephyre the sad. 

Grimoaldus has given a large 
paraphrase on all these names, which 
it may not be amiss to translate : 
" In the first place Drymo, so called 
" from a grove of oaks. Then 
" Xantho, named either from a 
*' yellow colour, or from a river of 
*' Troy of the same name, which is 
'' called also Scamander. After- 
" wards Ligea, who had her name 
*' from the sound of flowing waters, 
'* or from a tree or herb, called by 
** the Greeks Ligeon. Then Phyl- 
*' lodoce, so called from receiving 
*' leaves. And Nesaea, who had 
*' her name either from spinning, 
'' swimming, or washing. Speio 
'^ also, so called from dens and ca- 
'^ verns of rivers. Thalia also, 
'^ named from greenness, joy, and 
*' mirth. And Cymodoce, so called 
'* from receiving and quieting 
'^ waves. Also Cydippe, a riding 
*' virgin, who had her name from 



" the excellence and glory of her 
'^ horses. Also Lycorias, who was 
" married, and had the manners of 
" a wolf. And Clio, who uses to 
" bring praise and glory to men. 
" And her sister Beroe, who retain- 
" ed the name of an old woman of 
" Epidaurus, into whom Juno 
" changed herself, to persuade Se- 
" mele, to entreat of Jupiter, that 
'' he would appear to her with his 
" full glory. Ephyre also was pre- 
" sent, from whom the city Corinth 
" took its ancient name. Opis 
" also, a nymph full of care and 
" consideration. There was Asian 
" Deiopeia also, a warlike and 
'' strong virago. And lastly Are- 
•* thusa, a huntress, and companion 
" of Diana, who took her name 
" from a Sicilian fountain, who 
" throwing away her arrows fled 
" from Alpheus pursuing her." 

336. Phyllodoce.] In both the 
Arundelinn, and in one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts, it is Phyledoce. In Dr. 
Mead's other manuscript it is Phil- 
lldoce. 

33S. Nescee, &c.] This verse is 
omitted in one of Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts : and in some others, accord- 
ing to Pierius, and Fulvius Ur- 
sinus. 

Cymodoce.'] In one of the Arun- 
delian manuscripts it is Cynodoce. 

339. Cydippeque et flava Lycorias.] 
In the King's, the Cambridge, one 
of the Arundelian manuscripts, and 
in the old Nurenberg edition, it is 
Cydippe et jiava Lycorias. Pierius 
found Cydippeque et Jiava Lycorias 
in the Lombard manuscript, which 
he thinks is Virgil's manner. This 
reading is generally admitted. 



400 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



the other having jnst expe- 
rienced the first labours of 
Lacina; and Clio and her sis- 
ter Beroe, both daughters of 
Oceanus : both begirt with 
gold, both with painted skins ; 
and Ephyre, and Opis, and 
Asian Deiopeia, and Arethusa 
having at length laid her 
shafts aside. Among whom 
Clymene was relating the vain 
care of Vulcan, and the de- 
ceits of Mars, and his sweet 
thefts, and enumerated the 
frequent amours of the gods 
down from Chaos. Whilst 
the nymphs were hearkening 
to this song, as they turned 
tlie soft work, i^gain the la- 
mentations of Aristaeus struck 
his mother's ears ; and all 
were astonished in their glassy 
«eats : 



Altera turn primes Lucinae experta labores: 340 
Clioque et Beroe soror, Oceanitides ambae, 
Ambae auro, pictis incinctae pellibus ambae ; 
Atque Ephyre, atque Opis, et Asia Deibpea ; 
Et tandem positis velox Arethusa sagittis. 
Inter quas curam Clymene narrabat inanem 345 
Vulcani, Martisque dolos, et dulcia furta : 
Aque Chao densos divum numerabat amores. 
Carmine quo captae, dum fusis mollia pensa 
Devolvunt ; iterum maternas impulit aures 
Luctus Aristaei, vitreisqUe sedilibus omnes 350 



343. EtAsiaBeiopea.'] Paul Ste- 
phens and Schrevelius read atque 
Asia De'iopea. Some read atque Asia 
et Deiopeia, making Asia and Deio- 
peia two nymphs. But I believe Asia 
is an adjective, meaning that she be- 
longed to the Asian Jen: see the 
note on book i. ver. 383. 

344<. Tandem positis velox Are- 
thusa sagittis^ The nymph Are- 
thusa, according to the fable, was 
the daughter of Nereus and Doris, 
and one of Diana's companions. 
Being pursued by the river god Al- 
pheus, she was changed into a foun- 
tain by Diana. 

345. Curam Clymene narrabat in- 
anem Vulcani, &c.] This story of 
the amour of Mars and Venus, and 
their being caught in a net by Vul- 
can, is sung by Demodocus, in the 
eighth Odyssey. The Poet calls 
Vulcan's care vain, either because 
it did not hinder the lovers from 
enjoyment, or perhaps because, ac- 
cording to the song in Homer, the 
discovery of Mars seemed to be en- 
vied by the gods : 

'E^/t*?v ti. T^affitt^ty ava| Aio; v!os 'Ata'A,- 

X.ut. 
'E^fi6icc Atos vit, ha»,ro^i, ^eHro^ iduv. 
'U^a, xiv iv ^ifffAOiffi 6iXois K^an^oTtri Ti- 



Toy ^' ijfiuSiT 'i^etTa^iaxro^e; 'A^yutpivTn;. 
A'i ya,^ TOVTO y'ivoiTO, a,va^ ix.a.TriQo^J 'A^iX^ 

'Tfjcui V Uffo^ou/Tt ho), vutrai ti Siocivcct, 
"flj %(paT iv ^l y'iXus ugr adavaroKri 6ia1- 



He who gilds the skies. 



The gay Apollo thus to Hermes cries. 

Wou'dst thou enchain'd like Mars, oh 
Hermes, lie 

And bear the shame like Mars, to share 
the joy ? 

O envied sharae ! (the smiling youth 
rejoined,) 

Add thrice the chains, and thrice more 
firmly bind ; 

Gaze all ye gods, and ev'ry goddess gaze. 

Yet eager I would bless the sweet dis- 
grace- 
Loud, laugh the rest. 

Mr. Pope. 

347. Aque Chao.] According to 
Hesiod, Chaos was before the other 
gods; and from him the rest were 
generated : 

"Ktbi fciv ^^uTiffTa Xdag yivir. 

'E» Xdsos S* 'E^s€os ts fiikaivd ri Ny| 
iyitevra. 

Numerabat.'] It is narrabat is one 
of Dr. Mead's manuscripts, and in 
the old Venice edition of 1476 and 
1482. 

3 50. Viireisque sedi libus.] I n t h e 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



401 



Obstupuere: sed ante alias Arethusa sorores 
Prospiciens, summa flavum caput extulit unda, 
Et procul: O gemitu non frustra exterrita tanto, 
Cyrene soror ; ipse tibi tua maxima cura 
Tristis Aristaeus Penei genitoris ad undam 355 
Stat lachrymans, et te crudelem nomine dicit. 
Huic percussa nova mentem formidine mater. 
Due age due ad nos ; fas illi limina divum 
Tangere, ait : simul alta jubet discedere late 
Flumina, qua juvenis gressus inferret : at ilium 
Curvata in montis faciem circumstetit unda, 361 
Accepitque sinu vasto, misitque sub amnem. 
Jamque domum mirans genetricis, et humida 
regna, 



but Arethusa lookins for- 
wartis beyond the other sis- 
ters, raised Jier golden heatl 
above the lop ol the water; 
and called IVom afar ; O sister 
Cyrene, not in vain astoni»lied 
at so great a wailing; yonr 
own Arislaeiis, your greatest 
care, stands grievously la- 
menting, by the spring of 
your father Peneus, and calls 
yoH cruel by name. Hence 
the mother having her mind 
smitten with a new dread, 
cries, Come, bring him, bring 
bim to us: it is lawful for 
him to touch the thresholds 
of the gods. At the same 
time she commands the deep 
river to open wide, for the 
youth to enter : and the water 
stood round him heaped up 
like a mountain, and received 
him into its vast bosom, and 
admitted him under the river. 
And now admiring the habit- 
ation of bis mother, and the 
watery realms, 



King's manuscript it is vitreis quoque 
sedibus. 

S5^. Flavum.] jierius reads pla- 
cidum: but he is better pleased with 
flavum f which he found in most of 
the ancient manuscripts. 

355, Penei genitoris.'] We have 
seen already, that Peneus, according 
to Pindar, was the grandfather of 
Cyrene. 

357. Huic,'] In one of the Arun- 
delian, one of Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts, and in some old printed edi- 
tions, it is kinc. 

359. Discedere.] It is descendere 
in one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 

361. Curvata in montis faciem.] 
Thus Homer : 

Thus also Ovid : 

Cum mare surrexit; cumulusque im- 

manis aquarum 
In montis speciem curvari, et crescere 

visus, 

3QS. Jamque domum, &c.] This 
paragraph contains the entrance of 
Aristaeus within the earth, and his 



astonishment at the sight of the 
sources of the several rivers. 

Servius observes, that what is 
here said is not by a poetical liberty, 
but is taken from the sacred mys- 
teries of the Egyptians. For on 
certain days sacred to the Nile, 
some boys, born of holy parents, 
were delivered to the nymphs by 
the priests. Who, when they were 
grown up and returned back, related 
that there were groves under the 
earth, and an immense water con- 
taining all things, and from which 
every thing is procreated. Whence, 
according to Tliales, Oceanumque 
patrem rerum. 

Homer makes the ocean to be 
the source of all rivers : 

————— (iu^vpfiirao (Aiyet trdives uxiu,' 



*E| OUSTER Tcivris <rtra.fji.oi xtti ^rucra 6ci- 

Xuffffci 
Ket) ^uffUi x^^vcu XKt (p^ticera fiax^a vuov- 

ff'tv. 

Th' eternal ocean, from "whose fountains 

fio-w 
The seaSf the rivers, and the sfrings le- 
lotc', 

Mr. Pope. 
3 F 



4m 



p. VIRGILIT MARONIS 



aiid the lakes ehut up in dens, 
and the sounding groves, be 
went along, and astonished at 
the vast motion of the waters, 
he surveyed all the rivers glid- 
ing under the earth in differ- 
ent places. Phasis and Lycus, 
and the head whence great 
Enipeus first breaks forth, 
whence father Tyher, and 
whence the floods of Anio, 
and Hypanis sounding over 
the rocks, and Mysian Caicns, 



Speluncisque lacus clauses, lucosque sonantes, 
Ibat, et ingenti mota stupefactus aquarum, 365 
Omnia sub magna labentia flumina terra 
Spectabat diversa locis, Phasimque, Lycumque, 
Et caputjunde altus primum se erumpit Enipeus, 
Unde pater Tiberinus, et unde Aniena fluenta, 
Saxosumque sonans Hypanis, Mysusque Caicus, 



i 



But Plato, whom Virgil seems to 
follow here, as he did before con- 
cerning the soul 'of the world, sup- 
poses all the rivers to rise from a 
great cavern, which passes through 
the whole earth, and is called by 
the poets Barathrum, and Tartarus.: 
"Ev t< rav ^eta-fiecTm rtig yyig, ciXXag ri 

gflj iiTn Xiycifv ctvTo, 

S KCCl UXXodt KOCt tKiTvog KXt CCXXoi TTOXXot 

rav TrcinrZv T«gT«gflv xtKX^Kctff-ty. This 
opinion of Plato is largely opposed 
by Aristotle, in his second book of 
Meteorology; To dl h ^xl^avi^ys- 
y^xf/.fiivov Tii^i Tg rm Trorecfcm xai rtig 
ictXoiTTyig, oi^vvocTov Itrri. The doctrine 
however of a subterraneous abyss 
of waters has been of no small use 
to some modern philosophers in the 
construction of their theories. 

367. Phashnque Lycumque.'] These 
rivers, according to Strabo, are two 
of the most famous of Armenia, and 
fall into the Black sea: Uotcc^oi Tt 
^Xii'ovg ft£v iia-iv h t^ X^^i^- yva^if^a- 
tUToi "hi <^oc<rig ft£v x.tit Ayxoj, iU i'«>' 

UoVTiKViy iTCTTiTTTOVTig 6eiXc6T7ciy. [E^eCTO- 

<r6mg ^' «vTi rev Avmv ri'h'ri Qi^fia^oylx, 
cvx, iv.) itg T«i/ Keco-TTiccv 21 Kvgo;, Kxi 
'Ag«|»}5' iig ^s T>iv 'E^vd^eiv n Ev- 
(p^urr,g, x,eti o Tiy^ig. 

368. Primum se erumpit Enipeus.'] 
Pierius found primum se rumpii in 
the Roman manuscript : and pri- 



mum erumpit in that oblong one, 
which Pomponius Laetus used to 
call his darling ; also in the Medi- 
cean it had been altered from the 
same reading. I find primus erupit 
in the King's manuscript, primum 
erupit in one of Dr. Mead's, and pri- 
mum se erupit in the Cambridge ma- 
nuscript, and in the old Venice edi- 
tion of 14-75. 

Pierius found Enipheus in some 
old manuscripts. It -is Enitheus in 
one of Dr. Mead's. 

Enipeus is a river of Thessaly 
flowing through Pharsalus,'and fall- 
ingintoPeneus,accordingtoStrabo: 
'O S' 'EiiTTivg UTFo T?5 'O^^yoj -tca^o, <^ag- 
(TccXov Dviig, iig rov 'Airt^ccyov "ttcc^xZxXXh, 
5' iig Tov Urimoi. 

Homer calls this river the divine 
Enipeus, and the beautiful streams 
of Enipeus : 

O^^E K^tlSfios yvtv efifi.tia.1 AiokiBao, 
"K ^eretfiou h^diTffetT 'EftTTios 6u»to 

Kai p W 'Evi-rrio; -^ruXiffxiro KaXk psi&^a- 

369. Pater Tiberinus.] The Ty- 
ber, on the banks of which Rome 
is built. 

One of Dr. Mead's manuscripts 
has caput instead oi pater. 

Aniena fiuenta.] The Anio is a 
river of Italy. 

370. Hypanis.] The Hypanis is 
a river of Scythia. 

Mysusque Caicus.] The Caicus 
rises in Mysia. 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



403 



Et gemina auratus taurino cornua vultu 371 
Eridanus ; quo non alius per pinguia culta 
111 mare purpureum violentior effluit amnis. 
Postquam est iq thalami pendentia pumice tecta 
Perventum ; et nati fletus cognovit inanes 375 
Cyrene ; manibus liquidos dant ordine fontes 
Germanae, tonsisque ferunt mantelia villis. 



and Eridanus having the face 
of a bull wi(h gilded horns ; 
than which no river rushes 
more violently through the 
fruitful (iehls into the shining 
sea. After he was arrived 
under the roof of the chamber 
hanging with pumice stones, 
and Cyrene knew the vain 
lamentations of her son ; her 
sisters in order pour pure 
water on his hands, and bring 
smooth towels: 



' 371. Gemina auratus taurino cor- 
nua vuliu Eridanus.] The Eridanus, 
called also the Po, is a great and fa- 
mous river of Italy. It is common 
with the' poets to represent great 
rivers with the face of a bull. 

373. In mare purpureum.'] Vic- 
torinus, according to Servius, ima- 
gined the Poet to mean the Red 
sea: a monstrous supposition, that 
a river should rise in Italy, and have 
its outlet near India. Purple is an 
epithet frequently given to the sea 
by the ancients. See the note on 
book iii. ver. 359. 

Effluit.'] I follow Heinsius j 
though influit is the common read- 
ing. Pierius found efflu'U in the 
Roman and other most ancient ma- 
nuscripts. 

374. Postquam est, &c.] This 
paragraph contains the reception of 
Aristaeus by his mother, her instruc- 
tions, and the character of Proteus. 

375. Perventum et natijletus.] In 
the King's manuscript it is Perven- 
tum nati Jlentes ', where flejites is ma- 
nifestly a mistake. 

Inanes.] Servius says these la- 
mentations were vain, because they 
were moved by things easy to be re- 
paired, in which he is followed by 
Grimoaldus and La Cerda. Ruaeus 
interprets inanes, immoderatos : but 
on what authority I do not know. 

376. Manibus liquidos dant ordine 
fontes.] Dare aquam manibus is a 
frequent Latin expression. Thus 
our Poet again in the first ^neid ; 



Dant famuli manibus lymphas, Cere- 

remque canistris 
Expediunt, tonsisque ferunt raantelia 

villis. 

377. Tonsisque ferunt mantelia 
villis.] It is commonly spelt man- 
iilia: but Heinsius and Masvicius 
read mantelia^ which I find also ia 
the Bodleian, and in one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts. Vossius also 
prefers mantelia, and observes that 
this word is written mantelum, man- 
tellum, ,and mantelium. He also 
quotes a comment of the Servius of 
Fabricius, for it is not in that of 
Daniel, which I have by me, wherein 
Servius observes, that Varro called 
them mantelia, as it were manutenia, 
and that Plautus used mantelium, 
and Lucilius mantelia : '' Varro ap- 
" pellat mantelia, quasi manutenia. 
'' Caeterum Plautus hujus singulare 
" mantelium posuit in Captivis : 

" Nee his sycophantiis, nee fucis uUum 

" mantelium inveniam. 
" Lucilius autem mantelia dicit : 
*« Mappas, mantelia, merum- 

" que, 

'* qu8eGraeci/t4««v^t/«c vocant." Vos- 
sius farther observes, that there is 
probably an error in this note of 
Servius, and that it should be manu-^ 
teria, rather than manutenia, be- 
cause Varro derives it a tergendo, 
and not a tenendo ; " Mantelium 
" quasi manuterium, ubi manus 
" terguntur," says Varro. 

Mantelium certainly signifies a 
toivel, and it seems to have been 
3 F 2 



404 



p. VIRGILII MARONIS 



some load the tables with 
viands, and place full cnps; 
the altars blaze with Pan- 
chaean tires. Then, says the 
mother, take these goblets of 
Maeonian wine; let us make 
a libation to Oceanns. At 
the same time she prays to 
Oceanus, the father of all 
things, and to the sister 
nymphs, of whom a handred 
preserve the groves, a hun- 
dred the rivers. Thrice she 
poured liquid nectar on the 
burniug fire ; thrice the rising 
flame shone up to the top of 
the roof. With which omen 
being confirmed, she thas 
began : There is a prophet 
in the Carpathian gulph of 
Neptone, 



Pars epulis onerat mensas, et plena reponunt 
Pocula. Panchaeis adolescunt ignibus arae. 
Et mater, cape Maeonii carchesia Bacchi ; 380 
Oceano libemus, ait, simul ipsa precatur 
Ocean umque patrem rerum, Nymphasque so- 

rores, 
Centum quae sylvas, centum quas flumina servant. 
Ter liquido ardentem perfudit nectare Vestam ; 
Ter flamma ad summum tecti subjecta reluxit. 
Omine quo firmans anlmum, sic incipit ipsa, 386 
Est in Carpathio Neptuni gurgite vates, 



made of some woolly or nappy sort 
of cloth, which nice people had 
shorn or clipped, for the greater 
smoothness and delicacy. Our nap- 
kins were probably of the same sort 
formerly, the word seeming to have 
been derived from nap. 

379' PanchcBis igniius.'l Panchasa 
is a country of Arabia felix, fa- 
mous for frankincense. Thus our 
Poet in the second Georgick: 

Totaque thuriferis Panchaia pinguis are- 
nis. 

380. Masonii carchesia Bacchi.'] 
Servius interprets M(EO?iii, Lydii. 
Philargyrius adds, that Lydia was 
anciently called Maeonia, and that 
the mountain Tmolus, famous for 
good wine, is in that country. 
Strabo mentions a country called 
Catacecaumene, which is otherwise 
called Mysia and Maeonia, and was 
remarkable for affording no other 
tree than that sort of vine from 
which the catacecaumenian wine is 
obtained, which yields to none in 
elegance : Miru ^\ xmn Ivri* Kxtuki- 

e-lav, sm Mva-Uv ^^h xccXui, sm Mso- 
yixr AsySTflt* y«g ufA(poTi^ei)g' uTrecvrx 
k^iv^^oi, TrXijv «ft;r£Aov t»j$ tov Kecrxm- 



tcxvfisvtmsv <psgfly5-9)5 oivoy, ovSivog Ten Ia- 
Xcylfiuv ugn^ XUTTofciior. 

i he rnrchesium was an oblong 
sort of cup, a little flatted about the, 
middle, and having the handles 
reaching from top to bottom. 

382. Oceanumque patrem rerum,'] 
This expression is according to the 
philosophy of Thales, who was of 
opinion, that all things were ori- 
ginally derived from water. Homer 
makes Oceanus the father of all the 
gods : 

384. Perfudit nectare Vestam.] In 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts it is 
perfundit. 

Nectar is here used for wine, as 
in the tifth Eclogue : 

Vina novum fundam calathis Arvisia 
nectar. 

The ancients had two Vesta's, one 
the mother of Saturn, who is the 
same with the earth ; and the other 
the daughter of the same deity, who 
presides over hearths. See the note 
on book i. ver. 498. 

387. Carpathio.] Carpathus, now 
called Scarpanto, is an island of the 
Mediterranean, over against Egypt, 
from which the neighbouring sea 
was called Carpathian. 



GEORG. LIB, IV. 



405 



Caefuleus Proteus, magnum qui piscibus aequor 
Et juncto bipedum curru metitur equorum. 
Hie nuac Emathiae portus patriamque revisit 390 
Pallenen : hunc et nymphae veneramur, et ipse 
Grandaevus Nereus : novit namque omnia vates. 
Quae sint, quae fuerint, quae mox ventura tra- 

hantur. 
Quippe ita Neptuno visum est : immania cujus 
Armenta, et turpes pascit sub gurgite phocas. 395 
Hie tibi, nate, prius vinclis capiendus, ut omnem 



blue Proteas, who inea8ure6 
JJie great sea with fishes, and 
with his chariot drawn by 
two-legged horses. He now 
revisits the ports of Emathia, 
and his own country Pallene; 
him we nymphs reverence, as 
does also aged Neieus; tor 
the prophet knows every 
thing, what is, what was, and 
what is to come. For so 
Neptune has thought fit : 
whose monstrous herds, and 
ugly sea calves he feeds under 
the gnlph. Him, my son, yoi» 
must first take in chains, that 
he may 



388. Proteus.'] It does not ap- 
pear certainly from ancient history, 
who this Proteus really was. Ho- 
mer makes him an Egyptian. He- 
rodotus represents him as a king of 
Egypt. Some suppose him to have 
been a sophist, others a tumbler, 
&c. Sir Isaac Newton, finding him 
to have been contemporary with 
Amenophis or Memnon, takes him 
to have been only a viceroy to Ame- 
nophis, and to have governed some 
part of the lower Egypt, in his ab- 
sence. The poets however have 
made him a sea-god, and servant 
to Neptune. This whole fable of 
Proteus is an imitation of the fourth 
Odyssey, where Homer represents 
Menelaus consulting this deity, by 
the advice and with the assistance 
of his own daughter Eidothea. 

389. Ei juncto.'] It is evincto in 
one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 

Bipedum equorum.] These ficti- 
tious sea-horses are supposed to re- 
semble horses in their foreparts with 
two legs, and to end in a tail like 
fishes. Therefore Virgil calls them 
both fishes and horses. 

390. Emathice.] See the note on 
book i. ver. 489. 

391. Pallenen^ Pallene is a pen- 
insula of Macedon. Virgil makes 
this the native country of Proteus, 
though it has been already observed. 



Homer calls him an Egyptian. He 
might perhaps be born in Macedon, 
and then travel into Egypt j for ac- 
cording to Herodotus, he was an 
obscure person in that country. 

Veneramur.] It is venerantur in 
the King's and in one of the Arun- 
delian manuscripts, and in the old 
Paris edition of 1494. 

393. Sint.] It is sunt in one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 

Fuerint.] It is fuerant in one of 
the Arundelian manuscripts. 

Trahaniur.] It is trahuntur in 
the King's manuscript. 

394. Ita Neptuno visum est.] 
Homer makes Proteus a servant of 
Neptune : 

'nd<rns (iivhet etis. Ilofftt^davos v-To^ftds . 

Proteus a name tremendous o'er the 

main, 
The delegate of Neptune's wat'ry reign. 
Mr. Pope. 

SQ6. Vinclis capiendus.] Homer 
says he must be seized, in order to 
make him discover what is required 
of him : 

"Os »iv rot i/^etitriv ohov xa) fitir^et KiXtudou 
NofTovf US Wt 9revr9v Ikiva'ien lx,$uoivru. 
Watch with insidious care his known 
abode ; 



406 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



discover the whole cause of 
the disease, and give you 
good success. For without 
force, he will not give you 
any advice, nor can you win 
him by prayers: when you 
have taken him, use violence 
and chains; against these his 
tricks will be vain. When 
the sun has scorched the mid- 
dle of the day, when the 
herbs wither, and the shade 
is grateful to the cattle, then 
1 myself will lead you to the 
senior's retirement, where be 
withdraws from the waters; 
that you may easily attack 
him whilst he is overcome 
with sleep. But when you 
hold him fast with your hands 
and chains; then will he 
deceive you with various 
forms and appearances of wild 
beasts. 



Expediat niorbi causam, eventusque secundet. 
Nam sine vi non uUa dabit praecepta, neque ilium 
Orando flectes : vim duram et vincula capto 
Tende : doli circiim haec demum frangentur 

inanes. 400 

Ipsa ego te, medios cum sol accenderit aestus, 
Cum sitiunt herbas, et pecori jam gratior umbra 

est, 
In secreta senis ducam, quo fessus ab undis 
Se recipit ; facile ut somno aggrediare jacentem. 
Verum ubi correptum manibus, vinclisque te- 

nebis ; 405 

Turn variae eludent species atque ora ferarum. 



There fast in chains constrain the various 

god : 
Who bound obedient to superior force, 
Unerring will prescribe your destin'd 

course. 

Mr. Pope. 

399- Flectes.] Pierius found vinces 
in the Medicean manuscript. It is 
'the same in the King's, the Cam- 
bridge, the Bodleian, and in both 
the Arundelian manuscripts. 

401. Medios cum sol accenderit 
(Estus^ It is accederit in one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 

The heat of the day is mentioned 
also by Homer : 

^KfAOS y ri'tXios fittre* ov^avhv afA{ptStSjnxu. 

When through the zone of heav'n the 

mounted sun 
Hath journey'd half, and half remains to 

run. 

Mr. Pope. 

403. Senis.] Thus Homer : 

■ oXo<pa)ia, toio yi^ovres, 

405. Verum ubi correptum, &c.] 
These changes of Proteus are evi- 
dently taken from Homer: 

Hdvrcc Ti yivofAivos Ttt^wtrai offa ta-/ yalct* 



'AXX' on Kiv ^^ y ulros avu^VTat t-riiffffiy^ 

Tolas e&'v oliv ki xanvvtifivra 'l^^trh, 

Ka) Ton ^ri ff^icSai n (iivis, kuffa'i n yi- 

^ovra 
"U^us- 

Instant he wears, elusive of the rap>e. 
The mimic force of every savage shape : 
Or glides with liquid lapse a murm'ring 

stream, 
Or wrapt in flame, he glows at ev'ry 

limb. 
Yet still retentive, with redoubled might 
Through each vain passive form con- 
strain his flight. 
But when, his native shape resum'd, he 

stands 
Patient of conquest, and your cause 

demands. 
The cause that urg'd the bold attempt 

declare, 
And soothe the vanquish'd with a victor's 

pray'r. 
The bands relax'd, implore the seer to 

say 
What Godhead interdicts the wat'ry way. 
Mr. Pope. 

406. Eludent.^ So I read with the 
Cambridge and one of Dr. Mead's 
manuscripts, with most of the old 
editions, and Heinsius and Musvi- 
cius. Pierius found ludeni in the 
Roman manuscript, eludunt in the 
old oblong one, eludent in the Lom- 
bard, the Medicean, and most of the 
ancient ones. It is illudent in both 
the Arundelian, and in the othcF 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



407 



Fiet enim subito sus horridus, atraque tigris, 
Squamosusque draco, et fulva cervice leaena : 
Aut acrem flammas soiiitum dabit, atque ita 

vinclis 
Excidet, aut in aquas tenues dilapsus abibit. 410 
Sed quanto ille magis formas se vertet in omnes, 
Tanto, nate, magis contende tenacia vincla ; 
Donee talis erit mutato corpore, qualem 
Videris, incepto tegeret cum lumina somno. 
Haec ait, et liquidum ambrosias difFundit odorem; 
Quo totum nati corpus perduxit : at illi 416 
Dulcis compositis spiravit crinibus aura, 
Atque habilis membris venit vigor. Est specus 

ingens 
Exesi latere in montis, quo plurima vento 
Cogitur, inque sinus scindit sese unda reductos; 
Deprensis olim statio tutissima nautis. 421 

Intus se vasti Proteus tegit objice saxi. • 

Hie juvenem in latebris aversum a lumine 

Nympha 
CoUocat : ipsa procul nebulis obscura resistit. 



For on a sudden he will be- 
come a brislly boar, and a fell 
tyKcr.and a scaly dragon, and 
a lion witli a yellow mane : 
or else he will make a roar- 
ing like fire, to escape the 
chains, or glide away in the 
form of flowing water. Kut 
the more he varies himself 
into all shapes, do you, my 
son, so mnch the more 
straiten the binding chains: 
till he shall transform his body 
into the same shape that you 
saw him have when he first 
went to sleep. Having said 
thus, she poured the liquid 
odour of Ambrosia upon her 
son, anointing his whole body 
with it ; whence a fragrant 
gale breathes from his liair, 
and strong vigour is infused 
into his limbs. I'here is a 
great den in the hollow side 
of a mountain, where much 
water is driven in by the wind, 
and is divided into many bays, 
sometimes a most safe station 
for mariners in distress. 
Within this place Proteus 
hides himself behind a vast 
rock. Here the Nymph places 
the young man in ambush 
concealed from the light, and 
stands herself at a distance 
involved in a cloud. 



manuscript of Dr. Mead, which is 
admitted by La Cerda, Schrevelius, 
and Ruaeus. Many read illudunt. 

407. ^tra.'] Id est sceva, says 
Servius. 

411. Fertet.] It is vertit in one 
of the Arundelian, and in one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 

415. Hcec ail.'] This paragraph 
contains the seizing of Proteus. 

Amhros'ice.'] Pierius found am- 
brosia, in the ablative case, in some 
manuscripts. 

Difundit.] Pierius says it is de- 
promit in the Roman manuscript. I 
find diffudil in the King's, both Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts, and in some 
printed editions. 

416. Perduxit.] Pierius found per- 
fudit in the Roman manuscript. 



417. Aura] It is auras in the 
Roman manuscript, according to 
Pierius. 

421. Deprensis,] It Is depressis in 
the Cambridge manuscript. 

422. Intus.] In some copies it is 
inter. 

Vasti.] In the old Nurenberg 
edition it is casti. 

Objice.] In all the manuscripts 
that I have collated, and in many of 
the printed editions, it is obice. 

4-23. Aversum alumine.] In one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts it is aver- 
sum lumine without a. Pierius found 
the same reading in nTost of the an- 
cient manuscripts. 

424. Resistit.] Some read recessit; 
but all the ancient manuscripts, ac- 
cording to Pierius, have resistit. It 



408 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Now rapid Sirius, scorching 
the thirsty Indians, blazed in 
the heavens, and the tiery sun 
had finished half his course: 
the herbs were parched, and 
the rays boiled the hollow ri- 
vers to mud being heated 
with dry channels: when 
Proteus went to his accus- 
tomed den from the waves: 
the watery race of the vast 
sea rolling about him, scat- 
tered the bitter spray far 
about. The sea calvt-s spread 
themselves asleep on the floor. 
He, like a herdsman on the 
mountains, when evening 
brings home the calves from 
feeding, and the lambs sharpen 
Uie wolves with loud bleat- 
ings. 



Jam rapidus, torrens sitientes Sirius Indos, 425 
Ardebat caelo ; et medium sol igneus orbem 
Hauserat : arebant herbae, et cava flumina siccis 
Faucibus ad limum radii tepefacta coquebant. 
Cum Proteus consueta petens a fluctibus antra 
Ibat : eum vasti circum gens humida ponti 430 
Exultans rorem late dispersit amarum. 
Sternunt se somno diversae in littore phocae. 
Ipse, velut stabuli custos in montibus olim, 
Vesper ubi e pastu vitulos ad tecta reducit, 
Auditisque lupos acuunt balatibus agni, 435 



is resistit in all the manuscripts that 
I have seen. 

425. Jayn rapidus, &c.] Here the 
Poet Uses a beautiful circumlocution 
to express the middle of one of the 
hottest days in summw. Sirius, a 
star of the first magnitude in the 
mouth of the dog, rises about the 
time of the sun's entering into Leo, 
towards the latter end of July, 
making what we call the dog days. 
He shews it to be the time of noon, 
by saying the sun had finished the 
middle or half of his course. All 
these words, rapidus, torrens, siti- 
entes, Ijidos, ardebat, igneus, are ex- 
pressive of great heat. He enlarges 
the idea^ by representing the grass 
burnt up, and the rivers boiled to 
mud. It was the violent heat that 
caused Proteus to retire into his 
cave, where he would be the more 
easily surprised, being fatigued, and 
glad to sleep. 

427. Arebant. ^ It is ardebant in 
the King's manuscript. 

431. Dispersib] It is commonly 
read disperg'd: but Pierius found 
dispersit in the Medicean and other 
manuscripts. I find dispersit in the 
King's, both the Arundelian, and in 
both Dr. Mead's manuscripts. This 



reading is admitted also by Hein- 
sius and Masvicius. 

Amarum.'] The sea water is really 
bitter as well as salt. Homer has 
used the same epithet : 

432. Divers(F.~\ So Pierius found 
it in the Roman and other manu- 
scripts of greater note. In one of 
the Arundelian manuscripts, in the 
old Nurenberg edition, and in Schre- 
velius, it is diverso. But diversce is 
received by Heinsius, and most of 
the good editors. 

433. Ipse, velut stabuli custos, &c.] 
This simile also is in Homer : 

Ai^STa,i h fjuffffoiffi vefiiv; ug ^eoig-i fir,Xu>. 

. Repos'd in sleep profound 

The scaly charge their guardian god 

surround : 
Sa with his batt'ning flocks the careful 

swain 
Abides, pavilion'd on the grassy plain. 
Mr. Pope. 

434. Reducit.'] It is reduxit in 
one of the Arundelian manuscripts. 

435. Auditisque.l So Pierius 
found it in the Roman and Medi- 
cean manuscripts. It is the same 
in the Cambridge manuscript. All 
the other copies have auditique. 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



409 



Coiisidit scopulo medius, numerumque recenset. 
Cujus Aristaeo quoniam est oblata facultas ; 
Vix defessa senem passus componere membra. 
Cum clamore ruit magno, manicisque jacentem 
Occupat. Ille suae contra non immemor artis, 
Omnia transformat sese in miracula rerum, 441 
Tgnemque, horribilemque feram, fluviumque 11- 

quentem, 
Verum ubi nulla fugam reperit pellacia, victus 
In sese redit, atque hominis tandem ore locutus : 
Nam quis te, juvenum confidentissime, nostras 
Jussit adire domos ? quidve hinc petis ? inquit. 

At ille: 446 



sits in the inklst on a rock, 
and reviews his number. As 
soon as Arisiajus had got this 
oppoituuity, scarce sufi'ering 
the old deity to compose his 
wearied members, he rushes 
npon him with a great shout, 
and binds him. lie on the 
other side, not forgetful of 
bis wonted art, transforms 
himself into all sorts of won* 
derful shapes, a fire, a dread- 
ful wild beast, and a flowing 
river. But when his deceit 
found no escape, being con- 
qtiei^d, he returned to his 
own form, and at length spoke 
with human voice: Who, O 
most presumutHous youth, 
who commanded you to ap- 
proach my habitation ? or what 
do you want here? says he. 
To which h€ answered. 



Heinsius and most of the editors 
read auditisyue. 

436. Considit.'] Pierius reads con- 
^editi and mentions considit, as being 
only in the Roman manuscript. It 
is consedit in both the Arundelian, 
and in both Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts ; conscendit in the King's, 
but considU in the Bodleian and 
Cambridge copies j which last is 
admitted by Heinsius, and most of 
the editors. 

439. Cum clamore ruit magno, 
&c.] Thus Menelaus in Homer : 

'HftiTs y aJiy lap^ovns irtirffvftsf. xfctp) Ti 

'Ba.K'kefiLiv, ovV o yi^uv ^oXitjs WeXyihra 

'AXX* ^Tot v^uTiffra Xiuv yinr hvyinioit 
Avra^ sTiiTCi ^^dxav, xui ^d^aXti, i^\ 



fAiyas ffvS' 
TiViro uy^v vtu^, TcttiViv^^tov v'^frirnKov. 
*Hfii7s acrrsfA<pia>s £;^fljK£y nrXyiort 6vf/,u. 
AXX' 0T£ in ^ aviaZ^ o y't^av oKo(puicc uoeus, 

T<j v6 rot 'Ar^ioi v!i 6imv ffv/Ltf^difa'ciTo 

(iouXas, 
0(p^c6 fA iXois oc'iKovra Xs^Turdftivas ; rso at 

Rushing impetuous forth we strait pre- 
pare 
A furious onset with the sound of war. 



And shouting seize the god : our force t' 
evade 

His various arts he soon resumes in aid : 

A lion now, he curls a surgy mane ; 

Sudden, our bands a spotted pard re- 
strain ; 

Then arm'd with tusks, and lightning 
in his eyes, 

A boar's obscener shape the god belies : 

On spiry volumes there a dragon rides : 

Here, from our strict embrace a stream 
he glides ; 

And last, sublime his stately growth he 
rears, 

A tree, and well dissembled foliage 
wears. 

Vain efforts ! with superior pow'r com- 
press'd 

Me with reluctance thus the seer ad- 
dress' d ; 

Say, son of Atreus, say what god inspir'd 

This daring fraud, and what the boon 
desir'd ?" 

Mr. Pope. 

439- Manicisque.'] It is vinclisque 
in the King's manuscript. 

443. Pellacia,'} The common 
reading is fallacia. I have restored 
pellacia, on the authority of Hein- 
sius. Pierius also found pellacia in 
some manuscripts. In the second 
iEneid we find 



3 G 



Invidia postquam pellacis Ulyssei. 



410 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



Yon know, O Proteus, you 
know yourself; nor is it in 
any one's power to deceive 
you. But do yon cease to do 
so ; I came by the command 
of the gods, to consult you 
about ray ruined affairs. When 
he had thus spoken, the seer, 
with great violence, rolled his 
eyes flashing with bluish 
light; and grinding his teeth, 
thus opened Lis mouth to re- 
veal the fates. It is not with- 
out some deity that you are 
punished: you sutfer for a 
great crime: Orpheus, not 
miserable for any desert of 
his, calls for these punishments 
on you, unless the fates 
resist. 



Scis,Proteu,scis ipse: nequeesttefallerecuiquam. 
Sed tu desine velle : deum praecepta secuti 
Venimus hinc lapsis quaesitum oracula rebus. 
Tantum efFatus ; ad hagc vates vi denique multa 
Ardentes oculos intorsit lumine glauco, 451 
Et graviter frendens, sic fatis ora resolvit : 
Non te nullius exercent numinis irae. 
Magna luis commissa : tibi has miserabilis Or- 
pheus 
Haudquaquam ob meritum, poenas, ni fata re- 
sistant, 455 



447. Scis, Proteu, scis ipse.] Thus 
also Menelaus. 

i^tiivus. 

Neque est ie Jallere cuiquam.] A 
Graecism, for nee licet cuiquam; 
thus in the second Eclogue, nee sit 
mihi credere. Thus also Horace, 
quod versu dicere non est. 

449. Venimus, hinc lapsis.'] This 
reading was found by Pierius in 
the Roman and other ancient ma- 
nuscripts. It is the same in one 
of the Arundelian, and in both Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts. It is admitted 
also by Heinsius, Masvicius, and 
several of the old editors. 

450. Tantum effatus, &c.] The 
Poet now proceeds to the answer of 
Proteus, wherein lie tells Aristaeus, 
the cause of his disaster was the 
injury offered by him to Eurydice, 
the wife of Orpheus. This whole 
story is toid by V^irgil in so beau- 
tiful a manner, that it does not 
seem unworthy of the mouth of a 
deity. 

453. Non te nullius.'] Servius 
interprets this non humilis sed magni ,- 
but the Nymphs, who were of- 
fended with Aristaeus, were not 
great deities: and as for Orpheus 
and Eurydice, they were no deities 
at all 



454. Magna luis commissa.] La 
Cerda reads lues, and interprets it 
nam commissa quidem est magna lues 
tuarum apum, deletceque omnes ingenti 
occidione. But luis is generally un- 
derstood to be a verb, which seems 
to be the best interpretation. 

Orpheus.] He was tiie son of 
CEagrus, a king, or, according to 
Servius, a river of Thrace, by the 
muse Calliope. Some will have 
him to be the son of Apollo : but 
I believe Virgil was not of that 
opinion J because, in the fourth 
Eclogue, he derives the poetical skill 
of Linus from his father Apollo, 
and that of Orpheus from his 
mother Calliope : 

Non me carminibus vincet nee Thracius 

Orpheus, 
Nee Linus : huic mater quamvis, atque 

huic pater adsit, 
Orphei Calliopea, Lino formosus Apollo. 

N'ot Thracian Orpheus^ self should me 

excel, 
Nor Linus: tho* his mother him should 

aidy 
His father him : Calliope inspire 
Orpheus, Apollo dictate Linus'' verse. 

Dr. Trapp. 

Ho is highly celebrated for his extra- 
ordinary skill in music and poetry, 
and was one of the Argonauts. 

455. Haudquaquam oh meritum.] 
Some refer these words to poenas. 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



411 



Suscitat ; et rapta graviter pro conjuge soevit. 
Ilia quidem, dum te fugeret per flumina praeceps, 
Immanem ante pedes hydrum moritura puella 
Servantem ripas alta non vidit in herba. 
At chorus aequalis Dryadum clamore supre- 
mos 460 
Implerunt montes: flerunt Rhodopeiae arces, 
Altaque Pangaea, et Rhesi Mavortia tellus, 
Atque Getas, atque Hebrus, et Actias Orithyia. 
Ipse cava solans aegrum testudine amorem, 
Te, dulcis conjux, te solo iu littore secum, 465 



and L'rievously races for his 
ravished wite. Whilst she 
fled hastily from you along 
the river's aide, the dying 
maid did not see a cruel water 
snake before her feet, that 
was guarding the banks in the 
high grass. Bnt the choir of 
her sister Dryads filled the 
tops of the moontains with 
their cries: the rocks of Rho- 
dope wept, and high Paneaea, 
and the martial land of Rhe- 
sus, and the Getae, and He- 
brus, and Attic Orithyia. He 
assuaging his love-sick mind 
with his hollow lyre, lamented 
thee, sweet wife, thee on the 
solitary, shore, 



in which sense they are understood 
by May : 

To thee this punishment 

Though not so great as thou deserv'st is 
sent. 

Others refer them to miserabilis 
Orpheus. Thus Dryden : 

For crinoes, not his, the lover lost his 
life : 

And Dr. Trapp : 

Orpheus, unhappy by no guilt of his. 

461. Rhodope'icB arces.'] Rhodope 
and Fangsea are mountains of 
Thrace. 

462. Pangcea.] Some copies have 
Panchaia, but it is an absurd read- 
ing J for Panchaia belongs to Ara- 
bia, whereas Orpheus was con- 
fessedly a Thracian. 

Rhesi Mavortia tellus.] Mars was 
said to be born in Thrace. Rhesus 
was the son of Mars, and king of 
Thrace in the time of the Trojan 
war, which was after the death of 
Orpheus. 

463. Geta.'] The Getae were a 
people dwelling in the neighbour- 
hood of Thrace. 

Hebrus.'] A river of Thrace. 
Et Actias Orithyia.'] Some read 
atque instead of et. 

Orithyia was the daughter of 



Erectheus, king of the Athenians. 
She was ravished by Boreas, and 
carried into Thrace. 

464. Cava testudine.J The Poet 
calls the lyre cava testudo, because 
the ancient lyres were really made 
of the shells of tortoises. It was a 
received story among the ancients, 
that Mercury, finding accidentally 
a dead tortoise on the banks of the 
Nile, made a lyre of it: whence 
Horace calls him curves lyrceparen-. 
tern. To this story the same Poet 
also alludes, in the eleventh ode of 
the third book : 

Tuque, Testudo, resonare septem Cal- 

lida nervis. 
Nee loquax olim, neque grata : 

And in the third Ode of the fourth 
book : 

O Testudinis aurese 
Dulcem quae strepitum. Fieri, temperas ! 

O mutis quoque piscibus 
Donatura cygni, si libeat, sonum I 

See the Philosophical Transactions, 
numb. 282. pag. 126?. Jones's 
Abridgment, vol. iv. page 474. 

465. T e, dulcis conjux, he] There 
is something wonderfully pleasing 
in the repetition of te in these lines. 
But Dryden has omitted it in his 
translation : 

3 G 2 



412 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



thee when day approached, 
thee when it disappeared. 
He also approached the jaws 
of Taenanis, the lofty gates of 
Pluto, and entering the grove 
gloomy with black horror, he 
approached tlie Manes, and 
the tremendous king, and the 
hearts that know not how to 
relent at hnman prayers. Bat 
the thin sliades being stirred 
np by his song from the lowest 
mansioDS of Erebus moved 
along, and ghosts, deprived 
of light: innnmerabie as birds 
when they hide themselves in 
the leaves by thousands, at 
the approach of evening, or 
driven from the hills by a 
wintery storm: mothers and 
husbands, and the departed 
bodies of magnanimous heroes, 
boys and unmarried girls, and 
youths laid on funeral piles 
beforethe faces of their pareui s, 
whom the black mnd and 
squalid reeds of Cocytns, and 
the lake hateful with stagnant 
water incloses around, and 
Styx nine times interfused 
restrains. But the very habit- 
ations, and deepest dungeons 
of death were astonished, and 
the furies having their locks 
twisted with blue snakes, and 
gaping Cerberus restrained his 
three mouths, and the whirling 
of Ixion's wheel rested at his 
singuig. 



Te veniente die, te decedente canebat. 
Taenarias etiam fauces, alta ostia Ditis, 
Et caligantem nigra formidine lucum 
Ingressus, Manesqueadiit, regemque tremendum, 
Nesciaque humanis precibus mansuescere corda. 
At cantu commotse Erebi de sedibus imis 471 
Umbrae ibant tenues, simulachraque luce ca- 

rentum : 
Quam multa in foliis avium se millia condunt, 
Vesper ubi,authybemus agit de montibus imber : 
Matres atque viri, defunctaque corpora vita 475 
Magnammumheroum,pueri,innuptaequepuellap, 
Impositique rogis juvenes ante ora parentum, 
Quos circum limus niger, et deformis arundo 
Cocyti, tardaque palus inamabilis unda 
Alligat, et novies Styx interfusa coercet. 480 
Quin ipsae stupuere domus, atque intima Lethi 
Tartara, caeruleosque implexae crinibus angues 
Euraenides, tenuitque inbians tria Cerberus ora, 
Atque Ixionii cantu rota constitit orbis. 



On thee, dear wife, in deserts all alone. 
He call'd, sigh'd, sung, his griefs with 

day begun. 
Nor were they finishM with the setting 

sun. 

467. Tcenarias fauces.'] Taenarus 
is a promontory of Peloponnesus, 
fabled to be the entrance into the 
infernal regions. 

469. Manes. "^ This word is used 
for departed souls, for the places 
where they dwell, and also for the 
infernal deities. 

471. Erebi,'] Erebus, according 
to Hesiod, was the son of Chaos ; 

'Ex Xetios y "E^tSos Tt fiiXaivd ts Ny^ 
lytvovre ; 

but according to some, it is the 
name of the profoundest mansion 
of hell. 

472. Ibant.'] In the King's ma- 
nuscript it is slant. 



473. Foliis.] The common read- 
ing is sylvis; but Pierius found foliis 
in all the ancient mEmuscripts. I 
find foliis in one of the Arundelian, 
and in one of Dr. Mead's manu- 
scripts. Heinsius also reads foliis. 

479- Cocyti.] Cocytus and Styx 
are rivers of hell. 

480. Inamabilis.] Some read i»- 
nabiliSj as I find it in the King's and 
in one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 
But inamabilis seems to be the true 
reading, and is generally received. 

481. Stupuere.] It is obstupuere 
in one of Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 

482. Implexce.] Pierius found 
amplexcB in the Lombard and other 
manuscripts, and innex(£ in the Ro- 
man. It is ampltxcE in the King's 
manuscript, and in the old Nuren- 
berg edition. 

484. Cantu.] The usual reading 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



413 



Jamque pedem referens casus evaseratomnes^ 485 
Redditaque Eurydice sup^ras veniebat ad auras, 
Pone sequens; namque banc dederat Proserpina 

legem : 
Cum subita incautum dementia cepit amantem, 
Ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere Manes. 
Restitit, Eurydicenque suam jam luce sub ipsa, 
Immemor heu! victusque animi respexit, Ibi 

omnis 491 

Effusus labor, atque immitis rupta tyranni 



And now returning he hart 
escaped all dangers; and bis 
restored Eurydice was coming 
to the upper air following be- 
hind; for Proserpina had 
given those conditions: when 
a sudden madness seized fhe 
nnwary lover, pardonable 
however, did the Manes know 
how to pardon. He stopped, 
and now, even at the confines 
of light, thoughtless alas ! and 
deprived of understanding; be 
looked back at his Eurydice, 
there all his labour vanished, 
and the conditions of the crael 
tyrant 



is vento, which I do not find any of 
the commentators can make tolera- 
ble sense. Servius says cum is un- 
derstood, and therefore the meaning 
is, that Ixion's wheel stood still 
with its wind, that is, with the 
cause of its volubility. Philargyrius 
thinks vento is put for veniu, and 
that for adventu, and so the sense 
will be, the wheel stood still at 
his approach. La Cerda interprets 
vento, in aere, in the air. Ruaeus 
strains it to flante vento contrario, a 
contrary wind blowing. If the 
reader approves of any of these 
interpretations, he is welcome to 
restore vento. For my own part, I 
find them so unsatisfactory, that I 
have thought it necessary to read 
caniUf which Pierius found in several 
manuscripts, and seems to approve; 
only he is weighed down by the 
authority of Servius, who reads 
vento. But surely Servius was not 
infallible. 

The story of Ixion is, that he 
was condemned to a perpetual 
turning upon a wheel in hell, for 
attempting to violate the chastity 
of Juno. 

485. Jamque pedem referens, ^c] 
The Poet proceeds to relate the 
return of Eurydice ta light, the 
unhappy impatience of Orpheus to 
gaze at her, his lamentations for 



his second loss, and the miserable 
death of that great poet, which 
concludes the speech of Proteus. 

487. Namque hanc dederat Pro- 
serpina legem.'] The condition of 
not looking at his wife, till they 
were quite retired from the infernal 
dominions, is inferred, though not 
directly expressed by the Poet. Ovid 
has mentioned it more at large : 

Hanc simul et legem Rhodopeius accipit 

heros, 
Ne flectat retro sua lumina ; donee 

Avernas 
Exierit valles ; aut irrita dona futura. 

Given Orpheus with this law; till thou 

the hound 
Of f ale Avcrnus passe, if lack thou cast 
Thy careful eyes, thou loosest what thou 
hast. 

Sandys. 
4:^S. Suhita.'] Pierius found sM6i<o 
in the Roman, and in some other 
manuscripts. 

489. Ignoscenda quidem.'] Ovid 
says Eurydice herself did not blame 
him, because his error proceeded 
from love of her : 

Jamque iterum moriens non est de con- 

juge quicquam 
Questa suo : quid enim sese quereretur 

amatam ? 

Nor did she, dying twice^ her spouse re- 
prove: 

For what could she complain of but his 
love? 

Sandys. 



414 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



were broken, and a groan was 
thrice heard in the Avernian 
lake. Then she: Who is it, O 
Orpheus, that has destroyed 
miserable me, and thee also ? 
\Vhat great madness was this? 
lx>, again the cruel Fates call 
me back, and sleep seals up 
my swimming eyes. And 
now adiea : 1 am carried away 
encompassed with thick dark- 
ness, and stretching out my 
hands to you in vain alas! 
being no longer yours. She 
said, and fled suddenly from 
his sight a ditferent way, like 
smoke mixing with the thin 
air : nor did she see him catch- 
ing in vain at shadows, and 
desiring to say a great deal 
more; nor did the ferry-man 
of hell suffer him again to 

f»ass over the withstanding 
ake. What should he do? 
whither should he betake 
himself, having twice lost his 
wife ? with what complaint 
should he move the Manes, 
with what song the deities? 
she already sat shivering in 
the Stygian boat. It is saifl, 
that he lamented seven whole 
continnedmonihsnnder a lofty 
rock, by the waters of deserted 
Strymon, 



Foedera, terque fragor stagnis audit us Avernis^ 
Ilia, quis et me, inquit, miseram, et te perdidit 

Orpheu ? 
Quis tantus furor ? en iterum crudelia retro 495 
Fata vocant, conditque natantia lumina somnus. 
Jamque vale: feror ingenti circumdata nocte, 
Inyalidasque tibi tendens, heu ! non tua, palmas. 
Dixit, et ex oculis subito, ceu fumus in auras. 
Commixtus tenues, fugit diversa : neque ilium 
Prensantem nequicquam umbras, et multa vo?- 

lentem 501 

Dicere prasterea, vidit : nee portitor Orci 
Amplius objectam passus transire paludem^ 
Quid faceret ? quo se rapta bis conjuge ferret ? 
Quo fletu Manes, qua numina voce moveret? 505 
Ilia quidem Stygia nabat jam frigida cymba. 
Septem ilium totos perhibent ex ordine menses 
Rupe sub aeria deserti ad Strymonis undam 



493. Fragor.'] Servius under- 
stands /rag^or to mean an exultation 
of the shades at the return of Eu- 
rydice, and quotes a passage of 
Lucan in confirmation of his opi- 
nion : 

. Gaudent a luce relictam 

Eurydicen, iterum sperantes Orphea 
Manes. 

But 1 think fragor is not used for a 
sound of joy : at least I am sure 
Virgil never uses it in that sense, 
but for some great crash, or horrid 
noise. I take it in this place to 
mean a dismal sound given by the 
earth, or perhaps a clap of thunder, 
to signify the greatness of the mis- 
fortune. Milton has a thought 
like this, on our first parents tast- 
ing the forbidden fruit ; 

Earth felt the wound, and nature from 

her seat 
Sighing thro' all her works gave signs of 

woe 
That all was lost. 



And again. 

Earth trembled from her entrails, as 

again 
In pangs, and nature gave a second 

groan. 
Sky low'r'd, and mutt'ring thunder, some 

sad drops 
Wept at completing of the mortal sin 
Original. 

Stagnis auditus Avernis.'] Pierius 
found stagni est auditus Averni in the 
Roman manuscript. It is the same 
in one of Dr. Mead's. In the other, 
and in one of the Arundelian copies 
it is stagnis auditur Averni. In the 
old Paris edition of 1494, and in 
some others, it is stagnis auditus A- 
verni. In the old Nurenberg edi- 
tion it is stagnis auditur Avernis. 

504. Rapta bis conjuge.'] Pierius 
says it is his rapta conjuge, in some 
of the ancient manuscripts. 

508. Strymonis.] Strymon is a ri- 
ver of Macedon, on the borders of 
Thrace. 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



415 



Flevisse, et gelidis haec evolvisse sub antris, 
Mulcentem tigres, et agentem carmine quer- 
cus. 510 

Qualis populea moerens Philomela sub umbra 



and that be gung his niitfur- 
tunes under the cold caves, 
appeasing tygeis, and leading 
oaks wilt) his song. So the 
mourning nighiiugaie, under a 
poplar shade, 



509. Flevisse.] Pierius found 
Jlesse sibi in the Roman manuscript. 

Antris.'] Pierius says it is astris 
in the Roman and in some other 
maimscripts. 

511. Qualis populea, &c.] This 
simile is no less justly than gene- 
rally admired, as one of the most 
beautiful that ever came from the 
mouth of a poet. None that ever 
attempted to translate it^, seem to 
come up to the original. May's is 
not worth repeating. Dry den's is 
not contemptible; 

So close in poplar shades, her children 
gone, 

The mother nightingale laments alone : 

Whose nest some prying churl had found, 
and thence 

By stealth convey'd th* unfeather'd in- 
nocence. 

But she supplies the night with mourn- 
ful strains. 

And melancholy musick?fills the plains. 

Dr. Trapp's translation is thus : 

As when, complaining in melodious 

groans. 
Sweet Philomel, beneath a poplar shade. 
Mourns her lost young, which some 

rough village hind 
Observing, from their nest, unfledg'd, 

has stole : 
She weeps all night : and perch'd upon a 

bough. 
With plaintive notes repeated fills the 

grove. 

Lee also has attempted it, in the 
last act of his tragedy of Theodo- 
sius: 

As in some poplar shade the nightingale 
With piercing moans does her lost young 

bewail. 
Which the rough hind, observing as they 

lay 



Warm in their downy nest, had stol'n 

away ; 
But she in mournful sounds does still 

complain, 
Sings all the night, tho' all her songs are 

vain, 
And still renews her miserable strain. 

To these 1 shall add another trans- 
lation, which was made by a lady, 
and has not yet I believe appeared 
in print: 

So Philomel, beneath a poplar shade. 
Laments her young by some rude hand 

betray'd. 
All night in mournful notes she seeks 

relief. 
And the wide woods re-echo to her grief. 

Populea.] The poplar is judici- 
ously chosen by the Poet, on this 
occasion^, because the leaves of this 
tree trembling with the least breath 
of air, make a sort of melancholy 
rustling. 

Philomela.] Servius thinks the 
Poet puts the nightingale here for 
any bird : but surely what the Poet 
says here could not be applied to any 
other bird. 

We have already seen the story of 
Philomela and Procne, in the note 
on ver. 15. There is a different story 
of Philomela, which is related by 
Mr. Pope, in a note on the nine- 
teenth Odyssey, in the following 
manner ; *' Pandareus, son of Me- 
'* rops, had three daughters, Merope, 
*' Cleothera, and Aedon: Pandareus 
" married his eldest daughter Aedon 
" to Zethus, brother of Amphion, 
" mentioned in the eleventh Odys- 
" sey; she had an only son named 
'^ Itylus J and being envious at the 
" numerous family of her brother- 



416 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



laments her lost young, which 
some hard-hearted ploughman 
observing, has tanen from 
their nest unfeathered; but 
she wails all night, and sitting 
on a bongh continues her 
melancholy song, and tills the 
places all around wiih her 
complaints. No love, no mar- 
riage rites could bend his 
mind. Alone he surveys the 
Hyperborean ice, and snowy 
Tanais, and the plains never 
free from Ripliaan frosts ; 
lamenting his ravished Eary- 
dice, and the fruitless gift of 
Pluto. The Ciconian dames 
«nraged at his neglect oi 
them. 



Amissos queritur foetus ; quos durus arator 
Observans, nido implumes detraxit : at ilia 
Flet noctem, ramoque sedens, miserabile carmen 
IntegratjCt mcestis late loca questibusimplet. 515 
Nulla Venus, non ulli animum flexere Hymenaei. 
Solus Hyperboreas glacies, Tanaimque nivalem, 
Arvaque Riphaeis nunquam viduata pruinis 
Lustrabat, raptam Eurydicen, atque irrita Ditis 
Dona querens : spretae Ciconum quo munere 
matres, 520 



" in-law Amphion, she resolves to 
^* murder Amaleus, the eldest of 
" her nephews -, her own son Itylus 
'* was brought up with the children 
*' of Amphion, and lay in the same 
*' bed with this Amaleus. Aedon 
*' directs her son Itylus to absent 
" himself one night from the bed, 
'*' but he forgets her orders ; at the 
*' time determined she conveys her- 
*' self into the apartment, and mur- 
** ders her own son Itylus, by mis- 
*' take, instead of her nephew Ama- 
'' leus : upon this, almost in dis- 
*' traction, she begs the gods to re- 
'* move her from the race of hu- 
*' man-kind; they grant her prayer, 
" and change her into a nightin- 
" gale." Aedon is the Greek name 
for a nightingale, and is therefore 
the same with Philomela, It is to 
this story that Homer alludes in 
the nineteenth Odyssey: 

Kakiv dii^mtv 'iagos viov Itrrafiivoio, 
Aiv^^iuv iv firctXeta-t xethXafjiUn fUKivoTatv^ 

na7y okoipv^ofiUti "irvXev (pikoi, of Ton 

Krsrvs 5/ dtp^a^tas, xev^ov Znioio avaxTo;. 
As when the months are clad in flow'ry 

green, 
Sad Philomel, in bow'ry shades unseen. 
To vernal airs attunes her varied strains. 
And Itylus sounds warbling o*er the 

plains : 



Young Itylus, his parent's darling joy ! 

Whom chance misled the mother to de- 
stroy : 

Now doom'd a wakeful bird to wail the 
beauteous boy. 

Mr. Pope. 

Virgil seems also io allude to the 
same story in this place, the grief of 
the nightingale being for the loss 
of her young. According to the 
other fable, Philomela was not a 
mother. 

514. Sedens.'] It is canens in one 
of Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 

51 6. Non ulli.'] The common 
reading is nullique ; but Heinsius 
and Masvicius read non ulli. Pie- 
rius found non ulli in the Roman, 
Medicean, and other ancient manu- 
scripts. 

517. Hyperboreas glacies.'] See 
the note on book iii. ver. 196. 

Tana'im.] The Tanais or Don is 
a river of Muscovy, which empties 
itself into the lake Mseotis, and di- 
vides Europe from Asia. 

518. Riphceis.] See the notes on 
book iii. ver. I96, 382. 

520. SpreicB Ciconum quo munere 
matres.] In the Bodleian manu- 
script, and in many printed edi- 
tions, we read spreto, which Pierius 
also found in some ancient manu- 
scripts. But the King's, the Cam- 
bridge, both the Arundelian, and 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 
Inter sacra deum, nocturnique orgia Bacchi, 



417 



tore the young man in pieces, 
even at the sacred rites of the 
Uo<l», and nocturnal orgies of 
Bacchus, 



both Dr. Mead's manuscripts have 
spretce, which is admitted also by 
most of the old editors, and by Paul 
Stephens, Heinsius, La Cerda, 
Schrevelius, and Masvicius. 

The Cicones were a people of 
Thrace, living near the mountain 
Ismarus, and the outlets of the river 
Hebrus. 

Some authors have related, that 
the Thracian women had a more 
just cause of resentment against 
Orpheus ^ his being guilty of an un- 
natural vice, and even of teaching 
it to the Thracians. With this he 
is charged by Ovid : 

' Omnemque refugerat Orpheus 

Foemineam Venerem : seu quod male 
illi: 



Sive fidem dederat. Multas tamen ardor 

habebat 
Jungere se vati: multae doluere repulsae. 
Ille etiam Thracum populis fuit auctor, 

amorem 
In teneros transferre mares : citraque 

juventam 
iEtatis breve ver, et primes carpere flores. 

But it is not probable, that this vice 
should have its rise in Thrace, as it 
isknown to be the growth of'warmer 
climates. Nor is such a guilt con- 
sistent with the extraordinary pas- 
sion of Orpheus for his Eurydice. 
Our Poet himself has been accused 
of the same unnatural inclinations, 
but, I think, without any goocj 
reason. The principal argument is 
taken from the second Eclogue, 
where the Poet describes the pas- 
sion of Corydon for Alexis. Here 
he is supposed to mean himself 
under the name of Corydon, which 
however cannot be proved. Nor is 
it at all to be wondered at, that he 
should describe his shepherds as 
subject to that vice, which is still 
too common in the country where 
he lived, A poet must represent 



mankind as they are, given up to 
various follies, vices, and passions. 
Therefore he makes the shepherds 
subject to such passions, as he else- 
where sufficiently shews that he 
does not approve. And at the close 
of that very Eclogue, Corydon be- 
gins to discover his folly, and re- 
pent of it : 

Ah Corydon, Corydon, quae te dementia 
cepit ! 

Dryden endeavours to vindicate his 
author from this censure, but at the 
same time takes pains to shew that 
he was averse from the fair sex, 
which, if true, would strengthen 
the accusation. He adds, that there 
is hardly the character of one good 
woman in all his poems. But not- 
withstanding these concessions of 
his celebrated translator, I shall 
venture to affirm, that Virgil had 
other thoughts of women. He has 
indeed represented Dido under no 
very advantageous character. But 
this was not with any design of 
casting a slur upon the sex, but on 
the Carthaginians, the most invete- 
rate enemies of the Roman people. 
And, on the other side, Virgil never 
fails of setting conjugal love in a 
beautiful light. In the passage be- 
fore us, we have a husband ven- 
turing even to the infernal regions, 
to fetch back his wife, totally in- 
consolable for the loss of her, and 
invoking her with his dying lips. 
His hero, the great ^Eneas, leaves 
his father and son, and rushes 
through the flames of Troy, and the 
victorious enemies, to seek his lost 
Creiisa, and continues his pursuit of 
her, till her ghost appears, and ex- 
horts him to desist. Thus, though 
our Poet condemns impure and idle 
passions, yet he applauds the love 
of women, when it does not deviate 
3h 



418 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



and scattered over the wide 
plains his limbs. Even then, 
whilst CEagrian Ilebrus bore 
his bead, and rolled it down 
the middle of the tide, his 
voice and even his cold tongue 
called Eurydice, 



Discerptum latos juvenem sparsere per agros. 
Turn quoque marmorea caput a cervice revulsum 
Gurgite cum medio portans CEagrius Hebrus 
Volveret, Eurydicen vox, ipsa et frigida lingua, 



from virtue : and this, I hope, will 
not be imputed to him as a crime. 
The virgin Camilla is far from a 
bad character} and the description 
of Lavinia shews, that the Poet was 
by no means insensible of the 
charms of beauty, when supported 
by modesty. To conclude this di- 
gression, I shall beg leave to ob- 
serve, that had our Poet been 
thought fond of the vice of which 
he is accused by the defaming pens 
of some later writers j those of his 
own and the next succeeding ages 
would never have celebrated him as 
a pattern of modesty and virtue. 
Ovid indeed, who was under the 
displeasure of Augustus Caesar, on 
account of the obscenity of his 
verses, excuses himself by the ex- 
ample of Virgil, who described the 
flames of Amaryllis and Phillis, and 
the unlawful commerce of .^Eneas 
and Dido: 

Et tamen ille tuae felix ^tieidos author 

Contulit in Tyrios arma virumque toros. 
Nee legitur pars uUa magis de corpora 

toto, 
Quam not! legitimo foedere functus amor, 
Phyllidis hie idem, teneraeque Amaryl- 

lidis ignes 
Bucolieis juvenis luserat ante modis. 

Had this contemporary poet known, 
and he could not but have known it 
if it had been true, that Virgil de- 
scribed his own impure thoughts 
under the fictitious name of a shep- 
herd, he would not have failed to 
mention it on this occasion. But 
we find that Ovid had not the least 
suspicion of any such thing, and 
therefore charged him only with the 
mention of such passions as are ac- 
cording to nature, however criminal 
they are in other respects. 



521. Noclurnique orgia Bacchi.'] 
Some read nocturnaque, which seems 
to be approved by Pierius. But he 
found nocturnique in the Medicean 
and other ancient manuscripts, 
which last reading is generally re- 
ceived. 

The Orgies were a mad solem- 
nity sacred to Bacchus, which was 
celebrated with a kind of drunken 
fury. The word is derived from 
o^yh, fury. It was in one of these 
drunken fits, it seems, that Orpheus 
was torn in pieces. 

524.. CEagrius Hebrus] The He- 
brus is called CEagrian, from (Ea- 
grus the Thracian king or river 
mentioned before to be the father 
of Orpheus. 

525. Eurydicen.'] The repetition 
of the name of Eurydice, in this and 
the following verses, is exceedingly 
beautiful. 

The reader will not be displeased 
perhaps, if I give him the satisfac- 
tion of knowing, that Orpheus soon 
after found his Eurydice in the 
happy mansions of the other world, 
where he could gaze on her inces- 
santly, without any fear of losing 
her, as it is beautifully described by 
Ovid: 

Umbra subit terras : et quas loca viderit 
ante, 

Cuncta recognoscit. Quaerensque per 
arva piorum 

Invenit Eurydicen, cupidisque amplecti- 
tur ulnis. 

Hie modo conjunctis spatiantur passibus 
ambo : 

Nunc praecedentem sequitur, nunc pras- 
vius anteit : 

Eurydicenque suam jam tuto respicit Or- 
pheus. 

His ghost retires to under shades: once 
more 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



419 



Ah miseram Eurydicen anima fugiente vocabat: 
Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripae. 
Haec Proteus, et se jactu dedit gequor in altum : 
Quaque dedit, spumantem undam sub vertice 

torsit. 
At non Cyrene : namque ultro affata timentem : 
Nate, licet tristes animo depellere curas. 531 
Hagc omnis morbi causa: hincmiserabile Nymphae 
Cum quibus ilia chores lucis agitabat in altis, 
Exitium misere apibus. Tu munera supplex 
Tende petens pacem, et faciles venerare Napa?as. 
Namque dabunt veniam votis, irasque remittent. 
Sed, modus orandi qui sit, prius ordine dicam. 
Quatuor eximios praestanti corpore tauros. 
Qui tibi nunc viridis depascunt summa Lycaei, 
Delige, et intacta totidem cervice juvencas. 540 
Quatuor his aras alta ad delubra dearum 
Constitue, et sacrum jugulis demitte cruorem : 
Corporaque ipsa boum frondoso desere luco. 
Post, ubi nona suos Aurora ostenderit ortus ; 



ah! poor Eiirydice, as his life 
departed, and all the rocks re- 
peated Eiirydicc through the 
whole river. Thus spake 
Proteus; and threw himself 
into the deep sea, and as he 
went, the water foamed about 
Ills head. But Cyrene did not 
plunge into the sea : for she 
came and spoke to her trem- 
bling son, and bid him lay 
aside his vexatious cares. 
Hence, says she, is all (he 
cause of your disaster: hence 
the Nymphs, with whom she 
was dancing in the thick 
groves, have sent a miserable 
destruction on your bees. But 
do you in a suppliant manner 
offer gifts, and ask peace, and 
worship the favourable wood 
Nymphs. Tor prayers will 
movt them to pardon, and 
they will remit their anger. 
But first I will tell you in order, 
in what manner they must 
be entreated. Pick out four 
chosen bulls of the largest 
size, that now graze on the 
summit of green Lycaeus, 
and as many heifers un- 
touched by the yoke. Kaise 
four altars for them at the 
high temples of the goddesses, 
and let out the sacred blood 
from their throats, and leave 
the bodies of the cattle in the 
shady grove. Afterwards 
when (he ninth morning has 
appeared rising, 



He sees and knows "what he had seen hefare. 
Then through the Ely sian fields among the 

llest 
Seeks his Eurydice. Now repossest 
With strict imbraces, guided by one minde, 
They walke together : oft he comes behinde. 
Oft goes before : now Or_pheiis safely may 
His following Eurydice survay. 

Sandys. 

529- Vertice,] Some read vor- 
iice. 

530. At non Cyrene^ Proteus 
having delivered his oracular an- 
swer, Cyrene advises her son to 
offer sacrifices to the offended 
Nymphs, and to appease the manes 
of Orpheus and Eurydice. Aristaeus 
follows the instructions of his 
mother, and is surprised to see a 
swarm of bees come out of the 
carcases of the sacrificed oxen. 



531. Deponere.] In one of Dr. 
Mead's manuscripts it is depellere. 

535. Napceas.] The Napcece have 
their nanne from vu-xv^ a grove ; they 
are the same with the Dryades. 

537. Q.ui7\ It is quis in one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts, and in 
most of the old editions. 

53^. Eximios prcostanti corpore,] 
Pierius found eximio prcestantes cor- 
pore in the Roman manuscript. 

La Cerda observes that eximios 
is no superfluous epithet, being a 
sacerdotal word, and derived from 
eximere, to pick or choose. 

540. Intacta.'] Pierius found in- 
tactas in the Roman manuscript. 

543. Corporaque.'] In the King's 
manuscript it is corpora quaque. 

544, Os tender it. ~\ In one of the 
3 H 2 



420 



P. VIRGILII MARONIS 



you shall offer Lcthnean pop- 
pies (o the manes of Orpheus, 
and worship appeased Eury- 
dice with a slain calf, ami sa- 
crifice a black sheep, and 
revisit the grove. Without 
delay, he immediately obeys 
Lis mother's commands: he 
comes to the temple, and 
raises the altars as directed, 
he leads four chosen bulls of 
the largest size, and as many 
heifers untouched by the yoke. 
Afterwards as soon as the 
ninth morning appeared rising; 
he offers to tlie manes of 
Orpheus, and levisits the 
grove. And how they behold 
a sudden sight, and wonder- 
ful to relate, bees humming in 
the putrid bowels of the 
victims through all their bel- 
lies, and bursting out of their 
sides; then forming thick 
clouds; and settling on the 
top of a tree, and hanging like 
a cluster of grapes from the 
bending boughs. Thus did J 
sing of the management of 
fields, of cattle, and of treps : 
whilst great Ciesar thunders in 
war at deep » 



Inferias Orphei Icthaga papavera mittes, 545 
Placatam Eurydicen vitula venerabere caesa, 
Et nigram mactabis ovem, lucumque revises. 
Hand mora; continue matris praecepta facessit : 
Ad delubra venit ; monstratas excitat aras ; 
Quatuor eximios praestanti corpora tauros 550 
Ducit, et intacta totidem cervice juvencas. 
Post ubi nona suos Aurora induxerat ortus, 
Inferias Orphei mittit, lucumque revisit. 
Hie vero subitum ac dictu mirabile monstrum 
Aspiciunt, liquefacta bourn per viscera toto 555 
Stridere apes utero, et ruptis effervere costis ; 
Immensasque trahi nubes: jamque arbore surama 
Confluere, et lentis uvam demittere ramis. 
Haec super arvorum cultu pecorumque cane- 
bam, 
Et super arboribus : Caesar dum magnus ad 
altum 560 



Arundelian manuscripts it is indux- 
erit. 

545. Inferias.] The inferice were 
sacrifices offered to the Manes. 

Lethcea papavera.'] See the note 
on book i. ver. 78. 

5^6 and 54?.] These two lines 
are transposed in both the Arunde- 
lian, both Dr. Mead's manuscripts, 
in the old Nurenberg edition, those 
of Paul Stephens, Schrevelius, and 
others. 

550. Ad delubra vejiit.'] In one 
of the Arundelian manuscripts it is 
at delubra petit. 

552. Intacta.'] It is intactas in 
the old Venice edition of 1 482. 

Induxerat.] It is induxerit in one 
of the Arundelian, and in one of 
Dr. Mead's manuscripts. 

556. Et ruptis.] It is erupiis in 
the King's, and in the Cambridge 
manuscripts. 



558. Uvam.] See the note on 
book ii. ver. 60. 

559. Hcec super, &c.] Virgil 
having now finished this noble 
Poem, takes care to inform the 
reader of the time when it was 
written, and of the name of the 
author, asserting it to himself, that 
no future plagiary might pretend 
to so great an honour. 

560. Ccesar dum magnis, &c.] 
These lines are a fresh argument, 
that Virgil continued the care of 
his Georgicks, as long as he lived, 
for the time here mentioned is the 
year before his death. It was then 
that Augustus Caesar was at the 
head of the Roman legions in 
person, on the banks of the Eu- 
phrates, and compelled Phraates to 
restore the Eagles, which the Par- 
thians had taken from Crassus, and 
drew the neighbouring nations, and 



GEORG. LIB. IV. 



421 



Fulminat Euphraten bello, victorque volentes 
Per populos dat jura, viamque afFectat Olympo. 
lUo Virgilium me tempore dulcis alebat 
Parthenope, studiis florentem ignobilis oti : 
Carminaqui lusipastorum,audaxque juventa 565 
Tityre, te palulae cecini sub tegraine fagi. 



Euphrates, and being con- 
mieror gives laws tlirongh 
the willing people, and affects 
the way to heaven. At that 
time did sweet Parthenope 
nourish n)e Virgil, flourishing 
in the studies of ignoble ease : 
who recited the verses of 
shepherds, and, being bol<l in 
youth, sung thee, Tit>ru3, 
under the covering ot a 
spreading beecb. 



even the Indians, to make a volun- 
tary submission to him. See the 
notes on ver. 27, 30. book iii. 

663. Alebat.'] In the King's ma- 
nuscript it is habebat. 

564i. Parthenope.'] This was the 



name of an ancient city, which when 
rebuilt was called Naples. 

5Q5. Audaxque juventa.'] Accord- 
ing to Servius, Virgil was twenty- 
eight years old when he wrote his 
Eclogues. 



ADDENDA. 



\ 



ADDENDA. 



The following Remarks were sent me, after the publication of the 
Georgicksy by the learned Edward King, Esq. in two Letters dated 
from Bromley in Kent, Nov. 20, 1740, and May 11, 1743. 



GeORGICK i. 38. It is the 
cheapest and best way of improving 
land in the old husbandry j but 
it must be ploughed more than 
four times, 

97. Mr. B — 's remark is wrong 
in another particular ; for when 
these cninks are thus filled up, and 
then corn sowed, there will not be 
fine mould enough to cover the 
seed. Virgil does not speak of sow- 
ing in this place. 

208. When Libra has made the 
day and hours of. sleep equal. 

247. 

lUic, ut perhibent, aut intempesta silet 

nox 
Semper, et obtenta densentur nocte te- 

nebrae. 

Mr. B — , not content with having 
observed, and kept to the beauty of 
the first line in his translation, in- 
judiciously observesapalpable dark- 
ness in the second ; thus it is, says 
he, wove closer with thickening let- 
ters than any other line in the Latin 
language that 1 can recollect. I sup- 
pose he means chiefly the letter e, 
(or his observation is nothing;) and 
he has used one too many in densen- 
tur. But to my ear the night would 
be full as dark, and more still, if 
four of the e*s were not in the verse : 
thus 

Et circumfusa densantur nocte teiie- 
brae. 

357. The limbs of the trees being 



dry increases the friction and noise, 
when they rub against each other, 
and makes this aridus fragor. There 
would be no fragor if the trees 
were wet 5 for that would take off 
the friction. 

388. I prefer rauca voce, which 
is the opposite to liquidas voces, ver. 
410. Angelus Politianus, in his to- 
kens of wet weatiier, has latrant 
corvi, which I have often heard. 

403. Virgil here speaks of the 
signs of fair weather. Nequicquam 
translated in vain, and applied to 
the owl's singing, suits but ill with 
Virgil's exactness -, for that would 
be making him say, that the owl's 
singing, which is a sign of foul 
weather, is a vain omen, because it 
will be fair : it is saying that one 
sign of foul weather, is not a sign of 
foul weather. But Virgil has not 
been guilty of any thing like this 
in his tokens of foul or fair weather. 
He says before Necfratris radiis oh- 
noxia luna: which in the familiar 
English expression is. The moon 
rises as bright as day. It seems to 
me therefore, that there should be a 
stop at nequicquam, and then the 
sense will run thus ; The owl from 
the top of the roof observes (or waits) 
the setting of the sun in vain, because 
the night will be poetically as bright 
as day, Seros cantus is peculiar to 
the owl ; I know no bird besides, 
that sings only in the night. The 
nightingales with us sing in the day- 
3i 



426 



ADDENDA. 



time from about the middle of May, 
to the time they leare us. This 
perhaps has not been attended to, 
because her voice in the day-time is 
drowned in the neighbouring cho- 
rus. Thus most will readily say 
that blossoms are antecedent to 
leaves, but upon examination will 
find, that leaves are equally forward 
(at the same time) in proportion to 
their full growth, with blossoms in 
respect to the fruit that follows them, 
as in the peach, nectarine, almond, 
&c. The glaring appearance of the 
bloom takes up all the common at- 
tention; as the chirping, whistling, 
discord notes of various other birds 
divert the undistinguishing ear from 
attending to the single part of the 
musical nightingale. We are only 
apt to consider her solo part per 
arnica silentia Lunce, and with the 
best poets listen to her chiefly, when 
she does^ere noctem, Virg. sing dark- 
ling. Milt. 

416. By the fate of things a greater 
prudence; and this carries on the 
Epicurean principle. 

419. Aut qu(S densa relaxat-, 
for it is impossible that both should 
happen in the same instant. 

462. I never could be reconciled 
to quid cogitet humidus Auster, I 
had rather read cogat et or concitet 
{contra omnes codices) than cogitet. 

480. Mcestum illacrymat ehur, O- 
vid's mille modis lacrymavit ehur, and 
Tibullus's lacrymas fudisse tepentes, 
are nothing more than what is 
common in moist weather : but 
Virgil expressly refers the weeping 
into a prodigy by mcestum. 

Georg. ii. 10. Those that rise 
from suckers, or from scattered 
seeds. Thereisnooccasion,Ithink, 
to resort to the old opinion of spon- 
taneous generation. 

20, Hos natura modus primum de- 
dit, are those which rise sponte sua. 

22. I cannot construe this line 



without reading Sunt alii queis ipse 
viam sihi repperit usus. The alii 
(viz. modi) queris, &c. answers what 
went before. His genus omne. 

59. This relates to the seminibus 
jactis. The apples produced from 
kernels do not taste like the apples 
that produced the kernels. 

60. So the kernels of a bunch of 
grapes produce iurpes racemos. I 
never saw a vine raised from a ker- 
nel ; but a curious friend of mine 
informed me he had seen in Barba- 
does vines raised from the kernels 
of raisins. 

78. Aut rursum. Perhaps this 
means, that the same stocks, which 
were inoculated, upon the buds 
failing, are again cut for ingraft- 
ing. 

97- These mountains rise, or 
grow still higher, with vineyards 
of these grapes upon them. 

149. It w^ould somewhat abate 
Virgil's compliment to his own 
country, if, with Mr. B — we were 4 
to attribute the Ver assiduum only to " 
foreign grasses. 

153. 
Nee rapit immensos orbes per humum 

neque tanto 
Squameus in gynim tractu se colligit 
anguis. 

Here Mr. B — says the beginning 
and ending of the first line are 
snatched up like the motion of that 
frightful creature 3 and the immen- 
sos orbes betwixt makes the dreadful 
circle. No doubt of it, Virgil de- 
signed it should : but leaves this to 
the sound, and immensos orbes are 
full as like a square as a circle. 

251,252,253. This wish is, that 
in moist soils the rank grass should 
not be too prevalent, Ne sit ilia 
terra, quce majores herbas alit, nimium 
fertilis, viz. majoribus herbis, with 
the inexpugnabile gramen^ as Ovid 
calls it. He would not wish his 
crop should not be prcevalida, for it 



ADDENDA. 



427 



was like to be too rank, there is a 
remedy prescribed, Gei»rg. i. 112. 
Luxuriem segetum tenera depascit in 
herba. 

279. I am well satisfied this does 
not mean two armies, dubius mediis 
Mars errat in armis : I think it sig- 
nifies, that the ranks were so very 
regular, that Mars mistook the 
middle ranks one for another. Me- 
diis armis is as medias acies. 

Ipsi per medias acies insignibus alls. 

357. Presso vomere signifies deep 
ploughing. Mr. Dryden translates 
it loosens it (the earth) above ; but 
that would be by pressing the han- 
dles, not by pressing the share. 

408. Contains a double precept: 
1. That you should be early in 
cutting o£F the shoots. 2. That they 
should not be burnt in the vineyard. 
If they were burnt there, they would 
scorch the vines, or perhaps totally 
consume them. The burning small- 
coal in our woods greatly damages 
the trees that are to be left. 

441. Mr. B says the storm 

roars through the line. To me it 
sounds whistling. Quas animos' Eur 
assidue is strong sibilation. 

I believe Virgil in some instances 
designed the sound should answer 
the sense 5 but not in near so many 

as Mr. B imagined he did. I 

shall mention no more, as I find you 
have avoided following him where 
he is wrong. 

455. Mr. B — 's remark amounts 
to nothing j for his reasoning re- 
turns to what he objected against. 
Though Rhoetus and Pholus were 
not slain, yet in general may be 
said hostes domare letho, though all 
are not killed. 

458. Ofortunatosnimium! 'Nimium 
is greatly. It has in this place the 
sense oi plurimum or maxime, as in 
Claudian, nimium dilecte Deo! 

508. Hie stupet ationitus rostris. 
I believe he means those who set 
up for politicians, who received the 



news of the Senate from the rostra. 
See Middleton's Life of Cicero. It 
does not relate to those who studied 
the law, or were concerned in law- 
suits ; for that was mentioned be 
fore, ver. 501. 

519. I am of Mr. B — 's mind, 
that hyems does not signify winter. 
If winter was the middle time of 
gathering, there certainly was a 
previous one. The subsequent lines 
put this out of doubt, Varios ponit 
foetus Autumnus. 

Georg. iii. 52. I think none of 
the quotations expound turpe caput. 
But if it is like the bull's, which 
Virgil recommends, ver. 58. it will 
be turpe. The curling of the hair 
upon the head will retain more dust 
and chaff than is lodged upon a 
smooth headed cow ; so that the 
meaning is rather rough or shock- 
headed than large. A cow with a 
large long neck and a great head 
would be a monstrous un proportion- 
able figure. 

I take plurima cervix to be thick 
necked. Virgil says omnia magna ; 
that is, proportionably so. 

85. But what ignis is this? It is 
either the smoke of his nostrils, or 
the remarkable flame colour of the 
fine membrane within them. The 
action of neighing throws the blood 
over the membrane, and makes the 
flame colour appear more red and 
lively j and this answers every part 
of the verse, viz. premens collectum 
ignem volvit sub narihus. This I 
take to be the glory of his nostrils. 

87. Duplex spina, a kind of fur- 
row thrown up on each side of the 
spine, by which the spine itself 
would not be seen, but each furrow 
would look like a spine. 

100, 101. I take this to mean his 
own qualifications, and those of his 
brothers and sisters, et quis cuique 
dolor victo, quae gloria pabncB, or it 
may be the offspring of his father 
3 I 2 



428 



ADDENDA. 



or grandfather, in whicli sense the 
civilians are used to consider pa- 
rentes. Our countrymen value stal- 
lions at this rate. It may be too 
late to choose a horse for a stallion, 
by observing the excellencies of his 
colt : it may be better ahdere domo ; 
as ver. 95. 

106 ■ Verhere torto rather describes 
the manner of lashing, than the 
whip or lash. 

118. JEque juvenemque magistri 
exquirunt, Juvenem rather signifies 
a young man, than a young horse : 
cequus uterque labor and ceque juve- 
nem exquirunt relate to what went 
immediately before, which is break- 
ing horses for the chariot or riding. 

130. Dryden and B have ma- 
nifestly mistaken this. I shall only 
add to your just observation upon 
this line, a representation of this 
desire in Proserpina, Claud, de Rapt. 
Proserp. 

Jam vicina toro plenis adoleverat annis 
Virginitas : tenerum jam pronuba flam- 
ma pudorem 
SoUicitat; mistaque tremit formidine 
votum. 

134. The surgens zephyrus, I be- 
lieve, means the spring, as in G. 
ii. 330. 

Zephyrique tepentibus auris 

Laxant arva sinus. 

147. I should be glad to read 



Ilicibusque virentem 



Pluribus. 

It seems forced to make volitans a 
substantive. 

162. Ccetera pascuntur virides ar- 
menta per herbas. He may properly 
mean cows kept for the pail, which 
require a different management 
from the rest. 

219. This line is much below 
Virgil, is a very bad one, and breaks 
the context to no purpose. 

391. I must beg leave to differ 
from your opinion on this line; for 
though the aries was candidus ipse, 



yet the blackness of his tongue, M 
which the Moon did not examine, ^ 
was a reason against choosing him. 
Candidus ipse is the principal parts 
of him, as aureus ipse, G. iv. 274. 

409. Timidos agitabis onagros, 
Tumidos is a good reading, accord- 
ing to the accounts we have of the 
wild ass's being more than a match 
for the tyger in fighting. 

471. He seems to mean, that the 
plagues of different cattle were more 
numerous than the storms before 
winter J as ver. 480. 

Et genus omne neci pecudum dedit, 
omne ferarum. 

482. Nee via mortis erat simplex : 
I take this to mean that the manner 
of their death was various; ver. 496. 

Canibus blandis rabies venit, et 

quatit aegros 

Tussis anhela sues. 

Speaking of the horse, ver. 501. 

Aret 

Pellis, et ad tactum tractanti dura re- 
sistit. 

According to your note on this verse, 
horses were differently affected. 

513. I cannot help thinking er- 
rorem ilium signifies some mistake 
in the practice or application, and do 
somewhat incline to Dryden's inter- -a 
pretation; for if the giving wine J 
was always bad in its consequence, 
he would hardly have said profuit. 
But there may be another interpre- 
tation, which will favour my opinion, 
viz. that wine, which was of ser- 
vice to some of them, (or which 
was sometimes of service,) increased 
the distemper of others to madness, 
(or at other times increased the dis- 
temper to madness.) And this 
comes to what Lucretius says in his 
sixth book, and is in your note upon 
ver. 549. And the critics agree, 
that Virgil had Lucretius in his 
eye, when he wrote this account of 
the murrain. The difficulty was 1 
to know when to apply this me- S 
dicine, and the misapplication of it 



ADDENDA. 



429 



is what Virgil deprecates : Errorem- 
que hostibus ilium. Either of these 
interpretations naturally introduces 
the exclamation of this line: Let 
the gods deal better with good merij 
and let their enemies only suffer by 
such a mistake. 

536. I fancy contenta signifies 
yoked, which is a natural significa- 
tion of the word, from the manner 
of using oxen in a team, at the time 
when Virgil wrote. And it conveys 
a melancholy idea, when we consi- 
der men drawing the waggon, in 
the place of oxen. Strideniia plau- 
stra I would translate creaking wag- 
gons : the stridor I imagine to pro- 
ceed from the inequality of the mo- 
tion, and the inequality of the mo- 
tion from the weakness of those who 
drew them, in proportion to the 
weight they drew. 

I had marked several lines that 

Mr. B had taken notice were an 

echo to tlie sense. He seemed to 



me too fond of attributing to the 
sound, Virgil's great care of convey- 
ing the idea of the thing spoken of, 
by strength of expression. Much of 
this depends upon fancy ; but I will 
mention an instance or two, in which 

I think Mr. B carries this much 

too far. 

Georg. iv. 82. Directs acies is 
just the reverse of turbatce acies; 

Extemplo turiate acies versique Latini 
Rejiciunt parmas. 

iEN. xi. 618. 

85. In the common translations, 
it is left uncertain, which side the 
conqueror will oblige to yield. But 
surely he would hardly endeavour 
to demolish his own party. There- 
fore it comes to this sense, dum aut 
hos aut hos, that is of the other 
party, victor subegit dare terga, ob- 
nixi tamen sunt non cedere. 

203. Sir Daniel Molyneux's ob- 
servation I think is quite right. 



430 



ADDENDA. 



The following Remarks were sent me by the Reverend and learned 
Dr. William Greenwood, dated from Warwick, May 14, 1748. 



GeORGICK i. 32. Anne novum-^ 
This passage receives great light 
and beauty from the Farnese grove, 
and some gems, &c. representing 
the Zodiac. The ancients were at 
a loss how to have the balance sup- 
ported, and therefore it was origi- 
nally held up by Scorpius ^ who 
extended his claws for that purpose 
out of his own proper dominions, 
and thus took up the space of two 
signs in the Zodiac. But under 
Augustus, or a little after his death, 
they made Scorpius contract his 
claws, and introduced a new per- 
sonage to hold the balance. On 
the Farnese globe it is supported 
by Scorpius 3 and in several gems 
and medals of later date, it is held 
by a man; probably intended for 
Augustus himself. Vide Spence's 
Polymetis,p. 170. pi. 24. and pi. 25. 
fig. 3. 

How does your remark in the 
notes, that Augustus was born un- 
der Libra, agree with Suetonius, 
who says he was born under Capri- 
corn ? In Aug. §. 94. 

Suetonius, in the section referred 
to, does indeed speak of the birth of 
Augustus being in December ^ Au- 
gustum natum mense decimo, et 
ob hoc ApoUinis filium existima- 
tum 3 and at the latter end that he 
was born under Capricorn; Num- 
mumque argenteum nota sideris 
Capricorni, quo natus est, percus- 
serit. In that section Suetonius seems 
to relate what various authors had re- 
ported : but in §. 5. where he plainly 



speaks in his own person, he expressly 
declares^ that Augustus was born on 
the ninth of the calends of October, 
which is certainly under Libra ; Na- 
tus est Augustus, M. TuUio Cice- 
rone, et Antonio Coss. ix. Cal. Oc- 
tobr. pauUo ante solis exortum. 
This is confirmed by §. 100. where we 
are told that Augustus died on the 
fourteenth of the Calends of Septem- 
ber, in the seventy -sixth year of his 
age, wanting five and thirty days ; 
Obiit in cubiculo eodem quo pater 
Octavius: duobus Sextis, Pompeio 
et Appuleio Coss. xiv. Cal. Septem- 
bris, hora diei nona, septuagesimo 
et sexto aetatis anno, diebus quin- 
que et triginta minus. 

42. Ingredere — I should rather 
think with Catrou, that Virgil in- 
serted this passage, when he revised 
his Georgicks: and not when he 
first composed or published them. 

152. Aspera sylva — In your trans- 
lation you say, A prickly wood of 
burrs and caltrops: whereas I take 
them all to be of the nominative 
case, as they certainly are in Georg. 
iii. 384. where the very same words 
are used : and therefore they should 
likewise be construed thus, prickly 
brambles, and burrs, and caltrops. 

I did not take lappaeque tribulique 
to be the genitive case, as appears, I 
think, by the comma after sylva. It 
might indeed have been translated 
more literally thus ; A prickly wood 
arises, both burrs and caltrops. 

195. Grandior — Catrou places the 
full stop at the end of the next 



ADDENDA. 



431 



verse, and makes the sense run 
thus ; that the legumes may he larger, 
and boil belter with a very little Jire. 
211. Sub extremum — Virgil can- 
not possibly mean the last by ex- 
tremum, because it would contradict 
his epithet, intractabilis ; which im- 
plies that this season is unfit for bu- 
siness. But as there are two ex- 
tremes, and extremus is sometimes 
used to signify the first, as well as 
the last; if it can be allowed to 
have that construction in this place, 
the sense will be very clear and 
consistent : that the time of sowing 
barley is from the autumnal Equinox 
to the first heavy rains of the winter 
Solstice, when the inclemency of the 
weather will put a stop to all works 
of this kind. 

227. Faselum — I will not pretend 
to say what the Faselus was: but 
by these directions I think it can- 
not be the very same as our kidney- 
bean. For this is one of the ten- 
derest plants we have in the natu- 
ral ground; and the least able to 
^ bear the severe cold, either when 
it is young or old. It is therefore 
sown the latest in the spring of all 
legumes: and as the seed will be 
melted in the ground, if much rain 
falls before it is come up ; so the 
plant itself will be cut oflf by the 
first sharp frost in April or May, 
though it is ever so flourishing, or 
in October, when it is at its full 
growth. 

255. Deducere classes — I think we 
should understand deducere classes, 
to bring back the fleets ; and thus 
the same opposition will be con- 
tinued that was in a preceding 
verse. Hence we learn when to sow, 
and when to reap; when to venture 
out to sea, and when to retire into 
port again. 

268. Quippeeliam — I observe the 
commentators give reasons why 
some of these works may be done 
upon a holiday; but do not take 



any manner of notice of the rest. 
Now since they are only to be jus- 
tified by charity or necessity, all 
the following passages must be 
considered in that light. So that 
husbandmen are allowed, rivos de- 
ducere, to let out the flashes of wa- 
ter which are brought upon the 
fields by sudden showers and land 
floods : they may, segeti prcetendere 
sepem, secure the fences of their 
corn, when by the omission it would 
be exposed to immediate damage 
from trespassing cattle : they may, 
insidias avibus moliri, guard against 
the feathered robbers, who make 
no distinction of days, but are al- 
ways pilfering the seeds wlienever 
they can come at them ; and they 
may, gregem fluvio mersare salubri, 
bathe the flock in the river, if it 
is required for the health of the 
sheep. But why they should then 
burn the thorns, which may be 
conveniently done at anytime; or 
carry oil and fruits to town, for 
which there were probably other 
market days j though so correct a 
writer as Virgil had undoubtedly 
his reasons for it, yet I must own 
myself at a loss to discover. Un- 
less for the latter there might be 
the same necessity, as there is to 
cry milk and mackarel in London 
upon a Sunday: and if this could 
be proved, we may easily suppose 
they might be permitted to return 
with some other loading for back- 
carriage. And if the former ap- 
peared to be any thing like our 
burning of charcoal, this would be 
a work that might be continued, 
though not begun, upon a day that 
was esteemed sacred. 

Georg. ii. 97. Amminea was near 
to Falernus, and Pliny says, Prin^ 
cipatus datur Ammineis propter fir mi- 
tatem, 1. xiv. 2. Expressions very 
like these of Virgil. So that these 
three lines may be thus rendered; 



432 



ADDENDA. 



There are also Amminean vines, which 
yield the best bodied wines : to which 
the Tmolian, and Phancean, and 
smaller Argitis must give the prefer- 
ence ; though the two first are reck- 
oned prime wines, and the last none 
can rival, &c. Or suppose the 98th 
verse to be in a parenthesis, which 
would be more poetical, and then 
the construction will run thus ; 
There are also Amminean vines, which 
yield the best bodied wines, {to which 
the Tmolian and Phanaan, though 
reckoned prime wines, must give the 
preference,) and there is the smaller 
Argitis, which none, &c. 

206. Tardis — I think the epithet 
iardis alludes to the largeness of 
the loads, which occasioned the 
bullocks to move more slowly. So 
that the whole verse gives one a 
strong idea of the quantity of corn 
both in number and weight of 
loads, that is produced upon such 
land. 

321. Prima — I do not know any 
passage more crowded with fine 
expression, than these two lines. 
But in my opinion the beauty of it 
is greatly tarnished by supposing 
that cestas means nothing more than 
heat. The ancient and natural di- 
vision of the year was into summer 
and winter: and to which many 
authors allude both in prose and 
verse. But since between the ex- 
tremities of heat and cold in these 
seasons, there were intermediate 
spaces of moderate weather, the 
two others of spring and autumn 
were added ; which at their begin- 
ning and end generally partake of 
the qualities of the preceding and 
following season. So that Virgil 
joints out in the most poetical 
manner the very particular time in 
autumn that is most proper for this 
work. For, says he, one of the best 
times for planting vineyards is, 
upon the coming in of the first cool 
Weather in autumn, before you 



touch upon winter, and when the 
summer is quite gone. 

389, 392. Oscilla— caput— Mr. 
Spence in his Polymetis, p. I29. 
hath cleared up these passages by 
a gem in the great Duke's collec- 
tion at Florence, pi. 20. fig. 2. 
which represents a tree with seve- 
ral little heads of Bacchus hanging 
upon it, that turn every way. 

Georg. iii. 10. Before I had read 
Catrou I was of opinion, and am 
very glad to be supported by him 
in it, that all this following passage 
to the 40th verse is a most masterly 
allegory, whereby the Poet pro- 
mises to perform and publish the 
iEneid after his return from Greece. 
And if we take it in this light, it 
will greatly heighten the many beau- 
ties that are to be found in these 
lines. The Eneide was the temple : 
Augustus was the divinity, for 
whom it was formed, and to whom 
it was dedicated: his ancestors, as 
they are the principal actors in the 
one, so are they represented as the 
capital statues to adorn the other: ji 
and his victories, like basso re- fl 
lievos, were to embellish the work. 

37. Invidia — I cannot forbear ob- 
serving Virgil's genteel manner of | 
reflecting upon the factious and dis- 
contented, that were enemies of 
Augustus J by representing them 
under the figure of envy, trembling 
for fear of the severest tortures, 
that the poets have allotted to the 
most enormous offenders. 

81. — honesti. I think honesti re- 
lates only to the outward appear- 
ance, and that those colours are 
most graceful and pleasing to the 
eye: for otherwise it is true as the 
English proverb says, A good horse 
is never of a bad colour. 

81, 86. Luxuriat toris pectus — 
Densa Juba. It must be remem- 1 
bered that Virgil describes the fine u 
horse for the menage to be trained 



ADDENDA. 



433 



either for war, or the chariot : 
an English jockey will never agree 
with him, that a brawny chest and 
a thick mane are beauties in a 
horse. 

132. Cursu — As Virgil, according 
to your observation, seems to intend 
these precepts for both species, I 
think cursu qualiunt refers to the 
exercise proper for the mares, and 
sole fatig ant, &c. for the cows. 

299' Turpesque podagras. Many 
farmers, particularly in Warwick- 
shire, call this distemper, the Fouls : 
which, considering the part af- 
fected, is a literal translation of 
Virgil. 

400. Quod surgente — I think Vir- 
gil, in his short manner of hinting 
a direction, plainly points out to us 
which milk is best for cheese, and 
which for butter. What you milk 
in the morning and the day time, 
is to be pressed into cheese at 
night: and what you milk in the 
evening and the night, is to be 
made into butter; and either car- 
ried, sub luceniy very early in the 
morning to market in baskets, be- 
fore the sun will have power to 
melt it, or seasoned with a little 
salt and laid up for use in the win- 
ter. This construction will render 
the passage very clear and expres- 
sive, and remove the difficulties, 
which have so much puzzled the 
commentators in explaining the 
meaning of the word Calathis. 

478. Hie quondam — It appears 
plain to me that the Poet is speak- 
ing only of a pestilential distemper 
that many years ago invaded the 
Alpine countries; but in what pe- 
riod of time cannot fairly be col- 
lected, neither is it material, not- 
withstanding the name of Chiron 
and Melampus are mentioned; for 
these I take to be used in general 
for the most eminent physicians. 
And as all raging plagues are at- 
tended with many like circum- 



stances, it is wo wonder that his 
relation should very much agree 
with those, which Thucydides and 
Lucretius have given us of the 
plague at Athens: though proba- 
bly he might take several hints 
from them to heighten the descrip- 
tion. 

500. Incertus sudor — That incertus 
means it was doubtful whether a 
sweat was a good or bad symptom, 
and that at first they could not 
guess at the event of it, is evident 
I think from the words that follow; 
where he tells us when it comes 
to be a bad one : for when it grows 
cold, it is the forerunner of certain 
death, and consequently till that 
fatal turn, there might be some 
hopes of a recovery. 

553. Inque dies — This represent- 
ation, of the fury's growing larger 
every day, is one remarkable in- 
stance, among many others, of the 
strength of Virgil's imagination: 
and is intended to point out to us 
the gradual increase of a pestilen- 
tial infection till it arrives at the 
full height. There are two other 
instances of growing figures in the 
2Eneid, the one of Fame, lib. iv. 
ver. 175. and the other of Alecto, 
1. vii. ver. 448. 

558. Donee hunio — I cannot sup- 
pose that before this they did not 
know how to bury any offensive 
carcases : but I take the meaning 
of this passage to be, that they at- 
tempted to make some profit from 
them, after they were dead ; till they 
learnt by experience there was no- 
thing for them to do but to bury 
them. For, as it follows after- 
wards, neither the hides, nor the 
wool, nor the flesh were found to 
be of any service : but on the con- 
trary some of them produced the 
most dreadful effects upon those 
that ventured to make use of them. 
I cannot conclude this note without 
making a short remark of the great 

3 K 



434 



ADDENDA. 



conformity between the directions 
of Virgil and those of his Majesty's 
order in Council; and the reasons 
for them both. Here is advice to 
kill and bury, because no remedy 
was found to have any good effect, 
and the infected skins and carcases 
proved of such fatal consequences. 
For the immediate killing, see ver. 
468. for the burying, ver. 558. for 
the insufficiency of medicines, ver. 
548. and for the hurtfulness of the 
infected skins and carcases, ver. 
559. 

Georg. iv. 153. Solce — I wonder 
that the commonwealth of ants 
should escape the observation, or 
the memory of this accurate writer : 
for many of these particulars are as 
justly applicable to them, as to the 
monarchy of bees. 

179 Doedala — This word gives 
one a stronger idea than to be 
barely rendered, artificial: as it 
seems to resemble the works of 



these little animals to the famous 
labyrinth built by Daedalus in Crete^ 
372. Eridanus — All travellers 
agree that the Po is not a rapid 
river: neither is it likely that it 
should be so. For the force of a 
current is occasioned by its fall from 
a chain of mountains, or running 
down a steep descent of country: 
but the Po, very soon after its 
source, flows on through the vale 
of Piedmont; and afterwards tra- 
verses all the rich vale of Lom- 
bardy. These are the pinguia culta 
which Virgil speaks of: and there- 
fore very probably he means that 
no river, which runs through so 
long a tract of fertile plains, is 
more violent than the Po. So that 
I think, if Dr. Trapp instead of the, 
had said, 

Thro' such fertile fields, v. 444. 

his translation would have come 
something nearer to the spirit of 
the original. 



INDEX. 



Abies, the yew-leaved fir-tree, ii. 
68. 

Abydos, famous for oysters, i. 207. 

Acalanthis considered, iii. 338. 

Acanthus considered, ii. 1 1 9. iv. 123. 

Acerrae, ii. 225. 

Achelous, a solemn word used for 
water, i. 9- 

Acheron, ii. 492. 

Acinus explained, ii. 60. 

Aconite, a poisonous herb, ii. 152. 

Adder or Viper, iii. 417. 

Adeo signifies chiefly, i. 24. ii. 322. 

Aduro applied to cold, i. 93. 

.^mathia, see Emathia. 

JEstas means warm weather, iii. 322. 

jEstiva explained, iii. 472. 

African shepherds, their manners, 
iii. 339. 

Africus the south-west, iii. 278. 

Alburnus, iii. 147. 

Albus not a different colour from 
candidus, iii. 82. 

Alcinous, his gardens, ii. 87. 

Alder-trees gave the first hint to- 
wards navigation, i. 136. their 
proper soil, ii. 109, 110. grow on 
the banks of the Po, ii. 451. 

Alexander's error concerning the 
source of the Nile, iv. 293. 

Alienis mensibus explained, ii. 149. 

Alpheus, iii. 18. 

Alps, iii. 474. 

Altum used for the air, i. 443. sea, 
i. 324, 443. 

Amba'rvalia described, i. 335, 338. 

Amellus described, iv. 251, 271. 

Ameria famous for willows, i. 265. 

Amphrysus, a river of Thessaly, 
iii. 2. 

Amurca, iii. 448. 



Amyclae, iii. 89. famous for dogs, 

iii. 345. 
Anio, a river of Italy, iv. 369. 
Antipodes, i. 231. 
Aonia, iii. 11. 

Aparctias the North, iii. 278. 
Aparine, i. 153. 
Apeliotes the East, iii. 278. 
Apiaster, iv. 14. 
Apiastrum, iv. 63. 
Apium considered, iv. 121. 
Apollo, why called Thymbraeus, iv. 

323. 
Apples, the various sorts of them, 

ii. 87. 
Aquarius, iii. 303. 
Aquilo the North-East, iii. 278. 
Arachne changed to a spider, iv. 246. 
Arbutus, i. I4S, I66. iii. 300. why 

called horrida, ii. 69. 
Arcturus, when it rises, i. 67. a 

stormy sign, i. 204. when it sets, 

i. 228. 
Ardua explained, ii. 66. 
Arethusa, iv. 344. 
Argestes, iii. 278. 
Argilla explained, ii. 180. 
Arimaspians, theancient inhabitants 

of Muscovy, iii. 196. 
Arista explained, i. 220. 
Aristaeus, i. 14, 15. iv. 315, 317- 
Ascanius, a river of Bceotia, iii. 270. 
Ash used to make spears, ii. 447. 
Asia palus, i. 383. 
Asilus, an insect injurious to kine, 

iii. 138, 148, 149. 
AsiuS campus, i. 383. 
Aspect of a vineyard, ii. 298. 
Asphaltus, iii. 451. 
Ass wild, iii. 409. 
Astraea, ii. 473. 

3 k2 



4S6 



INDEX. 



Athenians, why called Theseidae, ii. 

383. 
Athos, i. 332. 
Atlantides, i. 138, 221. 
Atque used for statim, i. 203. 
Avernus, ii. l6l. 
Augustus complimented, i. 24, 28, 

43. iii. 35. his wars, iii. 32. the 

genealogy of his family, iii. 35. 
Aures, parts of a plough, i. 172. 
Aurora, i. 447. borealis, i. 474. 
Auster, the South, iii. 278. why 

called cold, iii. 279. 
Autumn, when it begins, i. 311. 
Avulsio explained, ii. 23. 
Azof, iii, 349- 



B. 



Bacchus, peculiarly called pater, ii. 
4. the inventor of wine, ibid. 
worshipped jointly with Ceres, i. 

7, 344. 
Bactra, ii, 138. 
Balearides, i. 309. 

Balius, one of the horses of Achilles, 

iii. 91. 
Balsam, ii. II9. 
Barbadoes tar, iii. 451. 
Barley, when sown, i. 208. 
Barren fields, how cured, i. 84. 
Bavaria, iii. 474. 
Bavius, i. 210. 
Baum, good for bees, iv. 62. 
Bay, i. 306. ii. 18. 
Beans, i. 74. when sown, i. 215. 
Bear, the constellation, i. 138. 
Beaver, i. 58. 
Bees, a proper station for them, iv. 

8. their swarming, iv. 51. fight- 
ing, iv. 67. difference, iv. 88, 92. 
how kept at home, iv. 103, how 
theirwingsmaybeclipped,iv.]06. 
their polity, iv. 149- compared to 
the Cyclops, iv. I70. their gene- 
ration, iv. 197, 295. sex, iv. 197- 
life, iv. 207. loyalty, iv. 210. 
passionate temper, iv. 228, 236. 
plagues, iv. 239. diseases and re- 
medies, iv. 251. how the loss of 
them may be repaired, iv. 281. 



Bee bread, iv. 38. 

Bee-eater, iv. 14. 

Bee-hives, how made, iv. 33. 

Beech is not the Esculus, ii. 15. 
preferred by the ancients to the 
chesnut, ii. 71. 

Benacus, ii. 16O. 

Bidens, an instrument of agricul- 
ture, ii. 355. 

Bipennis, iv. 331. 

Birds to be scared away, i. 118. 

Bisaltae, iii. 46l. 

Bite of a mad dog, how cured, iii. 
496. 

Biton, iii. 531. 

Bitumen, what it is, iii. 451. 

Blatta, an insect, iv. 243. 

Blight, i. 151. 

Blood of horses drunk by the Scy- 
thians, iii. 462. 

Boars, their manner of fighting, iii. 
265. 

Boas, a sort of serpent, iii. 418. 

Bootes, i. 228. 

Boreas, the north-east, iii. 278. 

Bows made of yew, ii. 437. 

Box, ii. 437, 449. 

Brambles used to bind vines, i. 266. 

Brass, how made, ii. l65. 

Broom, ii. 12. 

Bruma the winter solstice, i. 211. 

Bull, when to be admitted to the 
cow, iii. 133. 

Bulls, the fighting of these animals 
described, iii. 209- 

Bullocks, how tamed, iii. 157, I68, 
&c. 

Burdock, i. 153. 

Burgundy trefoil, i. 215. 

Burning the fields, i. 84. 

Burr, i. 153. 

Busiris, iii. 4. 

Butcher's broom, ii. 413. 



Cado, used to express the ceasing 

of the wind, i. 354. 
Caestus, iii. 20. 
Caicus, a river of Mysia, iv. 370. 



INDEX. 



4!3J 



Calathus explained, iii. 402. 

Callisto, i. 138. 

Caltrop, i. 153. 

Calves, how to be treated, iii. 157. 

Camilli, ii. I69. 

Canopus, where situated, iv. 287- 
why called Pellaean, ibid. 

Capistrum ferratum ex[)lained, iii. 
399' 

Carbuncle described, iii. 564!. 

Carchesium explained, iv. 380. 

Carex considered, iii. 231. 

Carpathus, an island of the Medi" 
terranean, iv. 387- 

Casia explained, ii. 213. iv. 30. 

Castalian spring, iii. 291. 

Castor, a drug, i. 58. 

Castor and Pollux, iii. 89. 

Catacecauaienian wine, iv. 380. 

Caucasus, ii. 440. 

Caudex explained, ii. 78. 

Caveaof the Roman theatre, ii. 381. 

Caurus, the north-west, iii. 277» 
278. 

Cayster or Caystrus, i. 384. 

Cedar of the Greeks diflferent from 
that of Lebanon, ii. 443. good to 
drive away serpents, iii. 414. 

Celeus, i. 165, 212. 

Centaurs, their fight with the La- 
pithae, ii. 454, 455, 457- 

Centaury, iv. 270. 

Ceraunia, i. 332. 

Ceres, the inventor of agriculture, 
i. 122. worshipped jointly with 
Bacchus, i. 7, 344. why called 
Eleusina mater, i. l63. why pop- 
pies were consecrated to her, i. 
212. the sacrifice to her de- 
scribed, i. 335. wine offered to 
her, i. 344. wreaths of oak worn 
in honour of her, ibid. 

Cerinthe, iv. 63. 

Cerinthum, ibid. 

Chalybes, i. 58. 

Chagrin, iii. 409- 

Chaones, a people of Epirus, i. 8. 

Chaonia, a name of Epirus, ibid. 

Chaos, the original of the gods, iv. 
347. 

Chelydrus, a sort of serpent, iii 415. 



Cherries, ii. 18. 

Chersydrus, a sort of serpent, iii. 

425. 
Chesnutjii. 15. its fruit not esteemed 

by the ancients, ii. 71. 
Chian wines famous among the an- 
cients, ii. 98. 
Chiron, the son of Saturn and Phi- 

lyra, iii. 92. when he lived, iii. 

478. his studies, iii. 550. 
Choaspes, iv. 211. 
Cicada explained, iii. 328. 
Cicones, iv. 520. 
Cimmerians, iii. 357- 
Cinyphus, or Cinyps, a river and 

country of Africa, where Tripoly 

now stands, iii. 311. 
Circensian games, iii. 18. 
Citron, a fruit of Media, ii. 126. its 

taste, ii. 109, 126. a remedy for 

poison, ii. IO9, 130. a stinking 

breath, ii. I09, 134. the plant 

described, ii. 109. 
Clanius, ii. 214. 
Cleaver, i. 153. 
Cleobis, iii. 531. 
Clitumnus, ii. 146. 
Clivers, i. 153. 
Clivus explained, iii. 293. 
Cneoron, the same with Casia, ii. 

213. 
Cocytus, iv. 479. 
Cold, the effects of it in the northern 

regions, iii. 349, 360, &c. 
CoUigere sitim explained, iii. 327. 
Colt, his good signs, ii. 77, 78, 79, 

&c. 
Compass of the ancients, iii. 278. 
Continuo explained, iii. 75. 
Cork-tree, its bark called cortex by 

way of eminence, iv. 33. 
Corn, the proper soil for it, ii. 177> 

203. 
Cornel used to make spears, ii. 447. 
Cornelian cherry, ii. 34. 
Corn-flag not the hyacinth of the 

poets, iv. 183. 
Corsica infamous for its bad honey, 

iv. 47. 
Corus. See Caurus. 
Corycus, iv. 127. 



438 



INDEX. 



Cotton, ii. 120. 

Country life, its pleasures in oppo- 
sition to those of courts and ci- 
ties, ii. 458. compared to that of 
a philosopher, ii. 490. 

Cow described, iii. 49. 

Cranes, i. 120. 

Crates explained, i. 95, 166. 

Crowns madeof theEsculus, ii. 15. 

Cucumber beautifully described, iv. 
121. 

Cunei, ii. 381, 508. 

Cunila, iv. 31. 

Curbs, why called Lupata, iii. 208. 

Curetes, the preservers of Jupiter, 
iv. 150. 

Currus signifies a wheel-plough, i. 
173. 

Cuttings, ii. 9$. of vines how to be 
chosen, ii. 299, 300. 

Cylinder, an instrument of agricul- 
ture, i. 178. 

Cyllarus, iii. 89- 

Cypress, why called Idaean, ii. 84. 
a native of Crete, ibid. 

Cyrene, iv. 321. 

Cythaeron, iii. 43. 

Cytisus, ii. 431. 

Cy torus, ii. 437- 



D. 



Dacians, ii. 497. iii. 462. 

Daflfodil considered, iv. 122, l60. 

Danube, ii. 497^ 

Darnel, i. 154. 

Darts, of what wood made, ii. 447. 

Days, lucky and unlucky, i. 276, 

277, 284. 
Decii, ii. I69. 

Deducere rivos explained, i. '^69. 
Delos, iii. 6. 
Delphi, iii. 291. 
Delta or lower Egypt described, iv. 

287, 292. 
Densum explained, ii. 227. 
Dentale explained, i. 172. 
Deucalion, i. 60. 
Diacodium, i. 78. 
Dicte, a mountain of Crete, ii. 536. 

iv. 152. 



Dies, the genitive case, i. 208. 
Dii patrii and Indigetes explained, 

i. 498. 
Dodona, i. 8. 
Dogs, how to be treated, iii. 404. 

the different sorts of them, iii. 

405. their madness, iii. 496. 
Dolphin, wiien it rises, iii. 133. iv. 

234. 
Don, a river of Muscovy, iv. 517. 
Donaria explained, iii. 533. 
Dragon, a northern constellation, i. 

205, 244. 
Draining a wet soil, i. 104. 
Drones, the male bees, iv. 168. 
Dryads, i. 10. ii. 494. 
Dunging, ii. 346, 347. 
Dwarf-oak not the Esculus, ii. 453. 



E. 



Ebony, ii. 11 6. 

Edurae explained, ii. 65. 

Egyptians adored their kings, iv. 
210. 

Elaeagnus, ii. 182. 

Eleusina mater, i. l63. 

Elis, i. 59. iii. 202. 

Elms, four sorts of them, ii. 83. 
used to prop vines, ii. 18. feed 
cattle, ii. 446. 

Emathia, the ancient name of Thes- 
saly,Macedon,and Epirus, i. 489* 

Endive, not the wild but the garden 
Intybum, i. 120. iv. 120. 

EncJymion beloved by the Moon, 
iii. 391. 

Enipeus, a river of Thessaly, iv. 
368. 

Eniteo explained, ii. 211. 

Eoae explained, i. 221. 

Eous, the morning star, and one of 
the horses of the sun, i. 288. 

Ephyre, a name of Corinth, ii. 464. 

Epicurus admired, ii. 490. his writ- 
ings, ibid, wrote against the fear 
of death, ii. 49I. avoided public 
offices, ii. 495. his notion of 
happiness, ii. 498. his temper, 
ibid, a pattern of temperance, ii. 
500. 



I 



INDEX. 



439 



Epidaurus^ iii. 44. 

Epirus, whence so called, i. 59. 
famous for horses, ibid, iii. 121. 
called Chaonia, i. 8. 

Equinox autumnal, i. 211. 

Erebus, iv. 471. 

Ericthonius, the inventor of cha- 
riots, iii. 95, 113. 

Eridanus, i. 482. 

Erigone, is the sign Virgo, i. 33. 

Erithace, iv. 38. 

Esculus considered, ii. 15, 453. 

Esseda, a sort of chariots used by 
the Britons, iii. 204. 

Ethiopians called Indians, iv. 293. 

Etruria, ii. 533. 

Eurus, the South-East, iii. 277, 
278. 

Eurystheus, iii. 4. 

Eximius, a sacerdotal word, iv. 
528. 



Fair weather, signs of it, i. 393. 

Falernus, ii. 96. 
Fallow of two years, i. 48, S3. 

every other year, i. 79, 83. 
Fan for corn, i. l66. 
Far, i. 73. 
Fasces carried before the Roman 

magistrates, ii. 495. 
Faims, i. 10. 

Favonius, iii. 323. the West, iii. 278. 
Fear, not the horse but the com- 
panion of Mars, iii. 91. 
Feeding the corn, i. 104, 112. 
Fens very subject to be scorched, 

iii. 432. 
Fermentum explained, iii. 379- 
Fern, ii. I89. 

Ferrugineus considered, iv. 183. 
Ferrugo explained, i. 467. 
Festivals, what works were lawful 

to be done on them, i. 267, 269, 

270, 272. 
Fir, ii. 267. 
Fishes not subject to the plague, 

iii. 541. 
Fishing, i. 141, 142. 
Flax, i. 77. when sown, i. 212. 



Flints beneficial to vines, ii. I89. 
Floor, how to be made, i. I76, 178. 
Foveo considered, iii. 420. 
Fragor considered, iv. 493. 
Frankincense peculiar to Arabia, i. 

.'i7. ii. 117, 139. 
Friuli, iii. 474. 
Fucus, iv. 38, 39. 
Fumigation of bees, iv. 241. 



Galbanum, iii. 415. iv. 264. Ga- 
les us, iv. 126. 
Galls, what they are, iv. 267. 
Gangarides, iii. 27. 
Ganges, ii. 137. 
Gardens, a digression concerning 

them, iv. II6. of the ancients, 

iv. 118. 
Gargarus, i. 102, 269. 
Gate of heaven considered, iii. 261. 
Geloni, ii. 115. 

Genista considered, ii. 12, 434. 
Georgicks, when written, i. 500, 

509. iii. 27. iv. 560. 
Germans lived in caves in winter, 

iii. 376. 
Get?e, iii. 462. iv. 463. 
Gilvus explained, iii. 83. 
Gladdon stinking, not the hyacinth 

of the Poets, iv. 183. 
Gladiolus, not the hyacinth of the 

Poets, ib. 
Glans explained, i. 305. 
Glaucus, i. 437. iii. 267. a colour, 

considered, iii. 82. 
Goats injurious to vines, ii. I96. 

why sacrificed to Bacchus, ii.380. 

the care of them, iii. 295, 322. 

their value, iii. 306, &c. 
Gods in general invoked, i. 21. 
Goose, injurious to corn, i. 119. 

dung burning the grass a vulgar 

error, i. 119* 
Goose-grass, i. 153. 
Grafting, ii. 32, 69, 73. distin- 
guished from inoculating, ii. 73. 
Granum gnidium, ii. 213. 
Gyrus explained, iii. 115. 



440 



INDEX. 



H. 



Haemus, ii. 488. 

Halcyon days, i. 398. 

Harpye, impregnated by the west 
wind, iii. 91. 

Harrowing, i. 94. 

Harvest, the time of it among the 
Romans, iii. 133. 

Hazel destructive to vineyards, ii. 
299. used to bind vines, i. ^66. 

Heat of the weather beautifully 
described, iv. 425. 

Hebrus, iv. 463. why called CEa- 
grian, iv. 524. 

Helicon, where situated, iii. 11. 

Hellebore of two sorts, iii. 451. 

Hermus, ii. 137. 

Hippocrates described the plague at 
Athens, iii. 478. when he flou- 
rished, ibid. 

Hippomanes explained, iii. 266, 
273, 280. 

Hippodame, iii. 7- 

Honey dropped from trees in the 
golden age, i. 131. why called 
aerial and celestial, iv. 1. whence 
produced, ibid, when to be taken, 
iv. 228, 231. 

Honey- wort considered, iv. 63. 

Hordea censured by Bavius and 
Maevius, i. 210. 

Hornet, iv. 245. 

Horreo explained, i. 151. 

Horse first produced by Neptune, 
i. 10. what country most famous 
for them, i. 59- described, iii. 72. 
how to be treated when old, iii. 
95, 96. their best age, iii. 100. 
how to be bred, iii. 179. when to 
break them, iii. I90. their pesti- 
lence, iii. 498. 

Husbandry nearly related to phi- 
losophy, ii. 493. preferable to 
other employments, ii. 503, 513. 

Husbandry, greatly esteemed by 
the ancient Romans, ii. 534. 

Hyacinth of the poets considered, 
iv. 183. 

Hyades, i. 138. 

Hyalus explained, iv. 335. 



Hydaspes, iv. 211. 

Hylas, iii. 6. 

Hvpanis, a river of Scythia, iv. 

370. 
Hyperboreans, iii. I96. 



I. 



lacchus, a sacred name for Bacchus, 

i. 166. 
lapidia, iii. 474. 
lapygia, ibid. 
Iberi, iii. 408. 

Ida famous for pitch-trees, iv. 41. 
Idumaea famous for palms, iii. 12. 
Jews- pitch, iii. 451. 
Ilex not the Esculus, ii. 453. 
Illaudatus considered, iii. 4. 
Imprudens explained, i. 373. 
Indigetes explained, i. 49S. 
Indignus explained, ii. 373. 
Inferiae, iv. 545. 
Infula, what it was, iii. 487. 
Inhorreo explained, i. 314. 
Ino, i. 437. 
Inoculating, ii. 73. 
Inserere arborem explained, ii. 50. 
Intybum, not endive but succory, 

i. 120. 
Invisere expressive of divinity, i. 

25. 
lo, iii. 152. 
Isis, ibid. 
Ismarus, ii. 37. 
Ister, ii. 497- iii. 350. 
Italy, whence so called, iii. 148. 

famous for kine, ibid, praised, ii. 

136. 
Ityraeans, ii. 448. 
Jujube tree, ii. 84, 182. 
Julian family, whence derived, iii. 

35. 
Juno, the earth, ii. 325. 
Jupiter, the author of tillage, i. 

118, 121. not the inventor of it, 

i. 122. ^ther or Sky, ii. 325. his 

grove, iii. 181. 
Ivory, the best from India, i. 57. 
Ivy, ii. 258. 
Ixion, iv. 484, 



INDEX. 



441 



K. 



Kidney-beans, i. 227» when to be 

sown, i. 228. 
Kids, a stormy sign, i. 205. 
Kine, a disease among them in 

England, iii. 536. 



L. 



Laconia famous for dogs, iii. 345. 
Lactans and lactens explained, i. 

315. 
Laeva numina considered, iv. 7- 
Lago di Como, ii. 159. Garda, ii. 

160. 
Lapithae, the inventors of riding, 

iii. 95, 115. 
Laplanders, their manners, iii. 196» 
Lappa, i. 253. 
Larius, ii. 159. 
Larkspur, not the hyacinth of 

the poets, iv. 183. 
Lavender falsely supposed to be the 

Casia, ii. 213. 
Laurel, i. 306. 
Laurocerasus, iftid. 
Laurus is not the laurel, but the 

bay, ibid. 
Layers, ii. 26. 
League, the most ancient among 

the Romans, iv. 131. 
Lees of oil, their uses, iii. 448. 
Lego, a term in naval affairs, ii. 44. 
Legumen explained, i. 74. 
Lentils, why called Pelusian, i. 228. 

when to be sown, ibid. 
Leopard described, iii. 264. 
Lethe, 1. 78. 
Leucothea, i. 437. 
Libations, ii. 101. 
Libra not anciently accounted one 

of the signs of the Zodiac, i. 33. 
Libs, the south west, iii. 278. 
Libum explained, ii. 394. 
Ligurians, ii. 168. 
Lilies, iv. 130. 
Lily, red, not the hyacinth of the 

poets, iv. 183. 
Lime, ii. 449. iv. 141. 



Litharge, iii. 449. 

Lituus explained, iii. 183. 

Lizards, iv. 13. 

Lolium, i. 154. 

Lopping, i. 118. 

Lotus considered, ii. 84. iii. 394. 

Lucern, i. 215. 

Lucifer, iii. 324. 

Lucky days, i. 276, 284. 

Lucretius described the plague at 

Athens, iii. 478. 
Lucrinus, ii. l6l. 
Lupatum, why so called, iii. 208. 
Lupines, i. 75. 
Lust, its violent e£Fects, iii. 209, 

242. 
Lybia, the Greek name for Africa, 

iii. 249, 339. 
Lycaeus, a mountain of Arcadia, iii. 

2, 314. 
Lycus, a river of Armena, iv. 367' 
Lydia, iv. 210. 
Lynx described, iii. 264. 
Lyre of the ancients, iv. 464. 



M. 

Maeonia, iv. 380. 

Maeotis, iii. 349. 

Maevius, i. 210. 

Majorca, i. 309. 

Male used for non, i. 105. 

Malt liquor used by the ancients, 

iii. 379. 
Manes explained, iv. 469. 
Mantelium explained, iv. 377- 
Mantua, ii. I98. 
Mareia, ii. 91. 
Mareotis, ibid. 
Mares, at what time to be covered, 

iii. 133. violently affected by 

lust, iii. 266. impregnated by the 

wind, iii. 266, 273. 
Marii, ii. 169. 
Mars, his horses, iii . 89. 
Marsi, ii. I67. 
Martagon, the hyacinth of the poets, 

iv. 183. 
Massicus, famous for wine, ii. 143. 
Maturare explained, i. 261. 

3l 



442 



INDEX. 



Matuta, i. 437. 

Maw-seed, i. 78. 

Medes remarkably obedient to their 

kings, iv. 211. 
Medica, i. 215, 2l6. 
Medic fodder, i. 21/5. 
Melampus, iii. 550. 
Melicerta, i. 437. 
MelisphylloD, iv. 63. 
Melissa, ibid. 

Mel la, a river of Lombardy, iv, 278. 
Merops, iv. 14. 
Metals, plenty of them in Italy, ii. 

165. 
Methymna, ii. 90. 
Meto used for gathering any sort 

of produce, ii. 410. 
Miletus, famous for wool, iii. 306. 
Milk, iii. 394. 
Minerva, the discoverer of the olive, 

i. 18. ii. 181. 
Minorca, i. SO9. 
Maesia, i. 102. 
Moles are not blind, i. 183. 
Mollibus stabulis explained, iii. 295. 
Molorchus, iii. 19. 
Monk's-hood, a poisonous herb, ii. 

152. 
Monochord, how invented, iv. 175. 
Montfaucon corrected, i. 344. 
Moon seduced by Pan, iii. 391. 
Moth, iv. 246. 

Mox signifies hereafter, i. 24. 
Mycenae famous for horses, iii. 121. 
Myrtle sacred to Venus, i. 28. ii. 

64. why called cruenta, i. 306. 

Paphian, ii. 64. its proper soil, 

ii. 1 12. used to make spears, ii. 

447. delights in growing near the 

shore, iv. 124. 
Mysia, i. 102. 



N. 



Nabca, ii. 84. 
Naiads, ii. 494. 

Narcissus considered, iv. 122, I60. 
Narycium, ii. 438. 
Naryx, ibid. 

Navigation, ths first hint of it, i. 
136. 



Nectar, used for wine, iv. 34. 

Negro, a river of Italy, iii. 151. 

Nemeaean games, iii. I9. 

Neptune, the first producer of a 
horse, i. 12, 13. iii. 122. 

Nequicquam explained, i. 192, 403. 

Nereids, ii. 494. 

Nettle tree, not the lotus of the 
ancients, ii. 84. 

Nightingale, a beautiful simile 
drawn from the singing of this 
bird, iv. 511. 

Nile, where it rises, iv. 287, 292, 
293. 

Niphates, iii. 30. 

Nisus and Scylla, i. 405. 

Noricum, iii. 474. 

Notus, the south, iii. 278. 

Novalis explained, i. 71. 

Numidians, their origin and man- 
ners, iii. 33g. 

Nux signifies a walnut-tree, i. 187. 

Nymphs, ii. 494. 



O. 



Oak, sacred to Jupiter, ii. 67' 

Oats wild, not a degeneracy of 
corn, i, 154. 

Occatio, i. 94. 

Oceanus, the father of the Gods, 
iv. 382. 

CEbalia, iv. 125. 

CEstros. See Asilus. 

Oil, when made, ii. 510. the uses 
of its lees, iii. 448. 

Oleaster, ii. 182. 

Olive, discovered by Minerva, i. 18. 
ii. 181. its various sorts, ii. 85. 
proper soil, ii. 177, 179. requires 
but little culture, ii. 420. a slow 
grower, ii. 3, 181. propagated 
by dry pieces of the trunk, ii. 30. 
truncheons, ii. 63. time of ga* 
thering, ii. 519. wild, ii. 182.SJ 
not to be planted in vineyards, 
ii. 302. 

Olympic games, where held, i. 59» 
iii. 19. the victors carried palms, 
iii. 49. 



INDEX. 



U3 



Onager, or wild ass, iii. 409. 

Opium, i. 78. 

Orchestra, ii. 381. 

Oreads, ii. 494. 

Orgies of Bacchus, iv. 521. 

Orithyia, iv. 463. 

Ornus, ii. 71, HI. 

Orpheus, iv. 454. 

Oscilla explained, ii. 389. 

Osier, ii. 12. 

Osiris, i. I9. 

Overflowing the ground, i. 104. 

Ounce described, iii. 264. 

Oxen not killed by the ancients, ii. 

537. 
Oxymyrsine, ii. 413. 



P. 



Paestum, famous for roses, iv. II9. 

Pagus, its etymology, ii. 382. 

Palaemon, i. 437. 

Palatium explained, i, 499. 

Pales, iii. 1. 

Palilia, a Roman feast, iii. 1. 

Paliurus, ii. 84. 

Pallas, the discoverer of the olive- 
tree, ii. 181. 

Pallene, iv. 19I. 

Palm, of several sorts, iv. 20. why 
called ardua, ii. 66. a slow grower, 
ibid, abounds in Idumsea, iii. 12. 
used for crowns, ibid, carried by 
the victors in the Oljmapic games, 
iii. 49. 

Pan, i. 16. ii. 494. his armour with 
the moon, iii. 391. 

Panchaea, iv. 379- 

Pangaea, iv. 462. 

Panopea, i. 437. 

Parnassus, iii. 291. 

Piaros, iii. 34. 

Parthenope, the ancient name of 
Naples, iv. 564. 

Parthia, iv. 2II. 

Parthians, iii. 31. their submission 
to their kings, iv. 211. 

Passum explained, iii. gs. 

Pasture, the proper soil for it, ii. 
177. 



Pears, the various sorts of them, 

ii. 88. 
Peletronium, iii. 115. 
Pelion, iii. 94. 
Pella, the metropolis of Macedonia, 

iv. 287. 
Pelops, iii. 7. 
Penates, i. 498. 

Peneus, a river of Thessaly, i v. 3 1 7- 
Pentathlum, iii. 20. 
Pernix considered, iii. 230. 
Persia, the bounds of it, iv. 290. 
Persians remarkably obedient to 

their kings, iv. 211. 
Pestis explained, iii. 471. 
Phanaea, ii. 98. 
Pharsalia, the battle there, i. 469. 

its situation, ibid. 
Phasis, a river of Armenia, iv. 367' 
Philippi, the battle there, i. 489. 
Philippi, not theThessalian Thebes, 

ibid. 
Philomela, her story, iv. 15, 51 J. 
Philyra, the mother of Chiron, iii. 

95. 
Pisa, iii, 180. 

Pitch, why called Idaean, ii. 450. 
Pitch-tree, ii. 257- 
Plague among the cattle described, 

iii. 470. 
Plane-tree, ii. 70. 
Planting by suckers, ii. 23, 65. 
sets, ii. 24, 64. layers, ii. 26, 
63, 65. cuttings, ii. 28, 63. dry 
pieces of the trunk, ii. 30. trun- 
cheons, ii. 63. 
Platanus, ii. 70. 
Pleiades, i. 138, 221. when they 

rise, iv. 232. set, iv. 234. 
Pliny quotes Virgil erroneously, ii. 

72. 
Plough described, i. I69, 175. 
Ploughing, when to begin, i. 43, 

64. 
Plurimus used for very much, or 
plentifully, i. 187. ii. 183. iii. 52. 
Po, ii. 452. 
Podarge, iii. 9I. 
Poles, i. 231, 240, 
Pollux, iii. 89. 
Pomps, iii. 22. 
3l2 



4f4>4> 



INDEX. 



Pomum explained, i. ^74f. ii. 59. 

Poplar, three sorts of it, ii. 13. 
sacred to Hercules, ii. 66. re- 
markable for the trembling of its 
leaves, iv. 511. 

Poppies, i. 78. when sown, i. 212. 
why called cereales^ ibid. 

Portunus, i. 437. 

Poscenium explained, ii. 381. 

Position of trees to be regarded, ii. 
269. 

Potnia, iii. 267. 

Praetorium, iv. 75. 

Premerevirgulta explained, ii. 34!6, 
iv. 131. 

Priapus, where worshipped, iv. 1 1 1. 

Procne, her story, iv. 15. 

Prodigies at Caesar's death, i. 466. 

Propagatio explained, ii. 26. 

Propago, ibid. 

Properare explained, i.26l. 

Propolis, iv. 38. 

Proscenium explained, ii. 381. 

Proscindo explained, i. 97. 

Proteus, his character, iv. 374, 388, 
391, 394, 405. 

Purple of Tyre, ii. 465. 

Putris explained, i. 215. ii. 204. 

Pyrrha, i. 62. 

Pythagoras, the inventor of the 
monochord, iv. 175. 



Quash, whence derived, i. 74. 
Quicken-tree, ii. 71- 
Quincunx explained, ii. 277. 
Quondam interpreted, iii. Q9. 



R. 



Rain, the signs of it, i. 370. 
Rarum explained, ii. 227. 
Rastruna used for a harrow, i. QS, 

164, 213. 
Red, that colour applied to the sea, 

iii. 359. 
Remus, ii. 533. 
Relicti considered, iv. 127. 



Reponit explained, iii. 76. 

Rhaetia, ii. 95. 

Rhesus, iv, 462. 

Rhodope, i. 332. iii. 351, 462. iv. 

461. 
Riding, by whom invented, iii. 95, 

115. 
Riphaean mountains, iii. 196, 382. 
Rivers, whence they arise, iv. 363. 
Robigo explained, i. 151. 
Robur signifies timber, i. l62. 
Roman soldiers, how loaded on a 

march, iii. 346. 
Rome, on what day founded, iii. 1. 

its seven hills, ii. 535. 
Romulus, ii. 533. 
Rosemary used in sprinkling, ii. 

213. 
Rudis explained, ii.2ll. 
Ruit explained, i. 324. 
Ruscus, ii. 413. 



Sabelli, ii. I67. 

Sabines, ii. 532. 

Saecula explained, i. 468. 

Saflfron, i. 56. 

Sagmina, iv. 131. 

Saltus explained, ii. 471. 

Sandaraca, iv. 63. 

Sarmatae, live under ground in 

winter, iii. 376. 
Sarra, an ancient name of Tyre, ii. 

506. 
Satureia, iv. 30. 
Saturn turns himself into a horse, 

ii. 95. 
Savoury, iv. 30. 
Scab, the cause of it in sheep, iii. 

441 . medicines to prevent or cure 

it, iii. 447, 448. 
Scarlet oak, not the Esculus, ii. 

453. 
Scene of the Roman theatre, ii. 381. 
Schetland, the ancient Thule, i. 30. 
Scipiades, ii. 170. 
Scorpion, the sign, why called 

ardent, i. 34. 
Scylla, i. 405. 



INDEX. 



445 



Scythian, a name for all the north- 
ern nations, iii. 196, 349. shep- 
herds, their manners, iii. 349- 

Sea, why called purple, iii. 359- iv. 
373. 

Seges usually signifies the field, i. 1, 
48. ii. ^66. iv. 129. 

Selo, a river of Italy, iii. 146. 

Semen used for cuttings, slips, and 
layers, ii. 268. 

Seneca censures Virgil unjustly, i. 
216. quotes him erroneously, ii. 
95. 

Septem trio, the north, iii. 278. the 
bear, iii. 381. 

Seres, ii. 121. 

Serpyllum, iv. SO. 

Sets, ii. 24. 

Sheep, fruitful in Italy, ii. 150. go 
150 days v«rith young, ibid, how 
they are to be treated, iii. 295, 
322. their diseases, 298, 299- 

Shells to be buried at the roots of 
vines, ii. 346, 347- 

Shepherds assisted Romulus and 
Remusin founding Rome, ii. 533. 
ancient of Canaan and Africa, iii. 
339, 344. Scythia, iii. 349. 

Shrub, how it diflFers from a tree, ii. 
21. 

Sicyon, ii. 519. 

Silarus, iii. 146. 

Siler, ii. 12. 

Silk, ii. 121. 

Sinus explained, iii. 39. 

Sisyphus, iii. 238. 

Slow months explained, i. 32. 

Smut is not Robigo, i. 151. 

Soils how to be distinguished, ii. 
226. 

Solstice, winter, i. 211. 

Solstitium signifies only the sum- 
mer solstice, i. 100. 

Soul of the world, iv. 221, 226. 

South wind, why called black, iii. 
278. cold, iii. 279. 

Spadix considered, iii. 82. 

Spatium explained, i. 513. 

Spears, of what wood made, ii. 447. 

Spelt, i. 73. 

Sperchius, ii. 487. 



Spring, when it begins, i. 43. the 
season for the generation of ani- 
mals, ii. 329. 

Spruce-fir, ii. 257. 

Spuma argenti explained, iii. 449. 

Squill or sea-onion, iii. 451. 

Stags, the effect of lust on them, 
iii. 265. 

Star of Julius Caesar, i. 488. 

Stiva explained, i. 173. 

Stones to be buried at the roots of 
vines, iii. 346, 347. 

Stork, when it comes into Italy, ii. 
320. 

Storm described, i. 311. 

Strawberry-tree, i. 148. 

Stringere explained, i. 305, 317. 

Strymon, a river of Macedon, iv. 
508. 

Styx, iv. 479. 

Subsolanus, the east, iii. 278. 

Succiditur explained, i. 297. 

Succory, i. 120. 

Suckers, ii. 23. 

Suculae, an improper name for the 
Hyades, i. 138. 

Sun, its prognostics, i. 438. pale- 
ness after Caesar's death, i. 466. 

Surculus, ii. 28. 

Swallow, injurious to bees, iv. 15. 
when it first appears, iv. 307. 

Swift, a sort of lizard, iv. 242. 

Swine, subject to disorders of the 
throat, iii. 497. 

Sylvanus, i. 20. ii. 494. 



T. 



Tabularium, ii. 502. 

Tabulatum explained, ii. 361. 

Taburnus, ii. 38. 

Taburo, ibid. 

Taeda, ii. 431. 

Taenarus, iv. 467. 

Tanagrus, a river of Italy, iii. 151. 

Tanais, a river of Muscovy, iv. 

517. 
Tarentum, ii. 193. iv. 125. 
Tares, i. 75. 
Tares, when to be sown, i, 228. 



ii6 



INDEX. 



Tar, iii. 450. 

Taurus, when the sun enters that 

sign, i. 217. 
Taygeta, ii. 4. iii. 444. 
Temo explained, i. 87. iv. 171. 
Tempe, ii. 469. iv. 317. 
Tempestates signifies storms, i. 27, 

252. 
Tempestivus explained, i. Q56. 
Terror, not the horse but the com- 
panion of Mars^ iii. 9I . 
Tethys, i. 31. 
Thasus, ii. 91. 
Theseidae explained, ii. 383. 
Thistle, i. 151. 
Thucydides, his description of the 

plague at Athens, iii. 478. 
Thule is Shetland, i. 30. 
Thymbra, iv. SO. 
Thymbraeus, a name of Apollo, iv. 

323. 
Thyme of the ancients, iv. 112. 
wild, or mother of thyme, iv. 30. 
Thymelaea is the same with Casia, 

ii. 213. 
Tiger described, iii. 264. 
Timavus, iii. 474. 
Tithonus, i. 447. iii. 48. turned to 

a Cicada, iii. 328. 
Tmolus, famous for soflFron, i. 56. 

wine, ii. 98. 
Tondeo used for the grazing of 

cattle, i. 71' 
Tophus explained, ii. 21 4. 
Torches of the ancients, i. 292. 
Tragedy, its etymology, ii. 382. ori- 
ginal, ii. 383. 
Trahea, a threshing instrument, i. 

164, 298. 
Transplanting of great trees, iv. 146. 
Tree, how it differs from a shrub, 

ii. 21. 
Trenches for vines, ii. 288, 289- 
Trepidare explained, iv. 69. 
Tribulum, a threshing instrument, 

i. 164, 298. 
Tribulus, the name of a plant, and 
an instrument used in war, i. 
153. 
Triones, whence derived, iii. 3^1. 
Tripoly in Africa, iii. 311. 



Triptolemus, i. 19. 

Triticum is a bearded com, i. 219. 

Troy, when and by whom founded, 

iii. 36. 
Truncheons explained, ii. 63. 
Truncus explained, ii. 63, 78. 
Tuscany, ii. 533. 
Tyber, i. 499. iv. 369. 
Tyre anciently called Sarra, ii. 506. 
Tyrian purple, ii. 465. iii. 17. 



Uber explained, ii. 275. 

Vellere signa explained, iv. 108. 

Verbena considered, iv. 131. 

Vergilise, i. 138. 

Veru distinguished from Pilum, ii. 
168. 

Vesevus the same with Vesuvius, ii. 
224. 

Vasta, two of them among the an- 
cients, iv. 384. 

Vetches, i. 75. when to be sown, 
i. 228. 

Vinaceum explained, ii. 60. 

Vines, the various sorts of them, ii. 
91, &c. not accounted trees, ii. 
290. how best propagated, ii. 63. 
when to be planted, ii. 321. 
pruned, ii. 403. their proper si- 
tuation, ii. 109. soil, ii. I77, 184, 
I89. distance, ii. 277. 

Vineyard compared to a Roman 
army, ii. 252. 

Viper or adder, iii. 417. 

Virgil vindicated against Pliny, i, 
100. Quintilian, iii. 79- Seneca, 
i. 216. his description of a cha- 
riot race preferred to Homer's, 
iii. 111. a follower both of Epi- 
curus and Plato, iv. 219- unjustly 
suspected of an unnatural vice, 
iv. 520. 

Vu'osus not always used for poison- 
ous, i. 58, 129. 

Vitta, what it was, iii. 487. 

Ulna considered, iii. 355. 

Ulva considered, iii. 175. 

Unedo, I 148. 



INDEX. 



447 



Unlucky days, i. 276, 277- 

Volsci, ii. 168. 

Voluptas explained, iii. 130. 

Ursa major, i. 388. 

Urus, ii. 374. 

Uva explained, ii. 60. 

Vulcan used for a large fire, i. 295. 

Vulturnus, the south-east, iii. 278. 



W. 



Water said to be tirst pro4uced by 

Neptune, i. 13. 
Wax, iv. 38. 
Weeding, i. 118. 
West wind called Favonius and Ze- 

phyrus, iii. 322. 
Willow described, ii. 13. four sorts 

of it, ii. 84. where the best grow, 

i. 265. their proper soil, ii. 109, 

110. use, ii. 446. 
Wind rising, the signs of it, i. 

356. 
Wine, rivers of it in the golden age, 

i. 132. offered to Ceres, i. 344. 

its ill effects, ii. 454. frozen in 

the northern regions, iii. 364. 

made of fruits, iii. 79. given to 

horses by the ancients, iii. 509* 
Winter, when it begins, ii. 519. 



Wolf s-bane, a poisonous herb, ii. 

152. 
Wool, not so good on fat cattle, iii. 

385. softness of it essential in a 

good sheep, iii. 386. 



X. 



Xanthus, one of the horses of 

Achilles, iii. 91. 
Xyris, not the hyacinth of the poets, 

iv. 183. 



Y. 



Yews love a cold situation, ii. lOp* 
reputed poisonous, ii. 257. iv. 47. 
used to make bows, ii. 434. 



Zea, i. 73. 

Zephyrus, iii. 273, 322. the west, 

iii. 298, 322. 
Zizyphus, ii. 84. 
Zodiac, i. 33, 231, 238. 
Zones, i. 231, 233. 



FINIS. 



BAXTER, PBINTBR, OXFORD. 



CONGRESS 




